cLAN
by alterocentrist
Summary: The unshakable Dr Arizona Robbins, assistant professor of computer science and a veteran Marine, is consulting for a FBI task force where she meets Special Agent Callie Torres, an attractive, vibrant profiler who senses her untold stories.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **My first shot at writing Calzona fanfiction. I get quite busy for weeks at a time, but I'll update when I can :) Excerpts from the next chapters are uploaded pretty regularly on Tumblr with the URL** wip-alterocentrist.**

* * *

Dr Arizona Robbins frowned as the door opened while she was talking, forty-five minutes into her lecture._ Latecomers_, she thought. _If they didn't have the courtesy to turn up on time, they shouldn't have turned up at all_. Averting her gaze from the door, she continued summarising the key concepts to her class. By the time she looked up again, she realised that the newcomer was not a student, but instead, a diminutive black woman in a dark pantsuit with a stark white shirt underneath. _Government?_ Arizona wondered. Intrigued, she promptly dismissed her students.

The last student closed the door behind her. The woman at the top of the stairs didn't take the opportunity to walk down to the front of the room. Instead, she watched until Arizona packed her books away in a backpack.

Arizona realised that the woman was waiting for her to climb up the stairs. "This might take a while. I only have one leg," she called out.

"I'm well aware of that, Dr Robbins. Special Agent Miranda Bailey. I'm from the FBI," the woman responded, showing a badge.

Arizona started walking up the stairs. Competently, but still slower than a person with two healthy legs. "Did someone I know get murdered?" she asked, only half-joking.

The FBI agent didn't find it funny. "No, ma'am. I don't do homicides."

"Good," said Arizona. She inhaled deeply once she got to the top of the lecture room. "So, how can I help you?"

"I'd like you to come with me to headquarters. My boss wants to see you."

"What does your boss want to talk to me about?" asked Arizona warily.

"This isn't the right place to discuss it, ma'am," said the agent. Her voice was tinged with urgency. "There's a car waiting for us already, and the Chief wants to speak to you, so we have to get there immediately."

"This Chief sounds a bit like my father," said Arizona.

"Just please don't tell him that to his face, ma'am. He doesn't like people to notice that he's getting older." The agent opened the door for the academic. "Let's go."

* * *

They sat in a glass-walled meeting room, the smaller one out of the two that were on that floor. Arizona was tapping the oval mahogany table lightly, but anxiously, with her fingertips. The FBI agent was standing by the door, taking the occasional peer into the bullpen below for any signs of the Chief.

"You nervous, Agent Bailey?" the blonde asked.

"The Chief is only a couple of minutes late, that's all. Just call me Bailey, ma'am," said the other woman.

"Only if you stop calling me 'ma'am'," said Arizona.

"The Chief's coming," said Bailey quickly.

A tall, imposing man entered the room, wearing - with no surprise to Arizona - a dark suit. She was surprised, though, when he smiled warmly at her. "Staff Sergeant Robbins," he said, saluting.

At the sound of her former rank in the Marines, Arizona hesitantly stood up and saluted him back. "Doctor Robbins is fine, sir," she said. "I don't really pull rank anymore."

The Chief dismissed Bailey with a nod of his head. "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Richard Webber," he said. "And I'm the head of the FBI's northwestern cyber crime division. You may call me Agent Webber or Chief. "

They both took their seats. "Am I here to be incriminated in a crime?" asked Arizona.

"No, Dr Robbins," said the Chief. "We're here to work together. Simply put, the FBI needs your help. Our division has been working with the organised crime division to investigate some events that have happened lately - the first was a subtle, but synchronised draining of funds from America's big banks, and the second was a six-hour server takeover on NASDAQ, held at ransom. All within the space of a week."

"I heard about those on the news, sir." Arizona scratched her head. "I teach computer science at a state university, Agent Webber. I fail to see how I could be useful."

"You've been an acclaimed academic since you left the Marines, Dr Robbins," said the Chief. "Your publications are interesting. I seem to recall one that analyses server vulnerabilities for banks and financial institutions, and it has case studies on how opportunistic individuals have compromised these systems. You have also done a series of public lectures on large scale online theft, and you teach a course on security. I believe that you have something we don't, Dr Robbins."

"Not the billions of dollars in cash you're looking for," joked Arizona.

The Chief cracked a small smile. Well, at least he found her to be marginally funny. "I know you don't," he said. "But you understand computers and you understand security."

"With all due respect, so does your cyber crime division, sir."

"That's true, but you understand how systems can be manipulated, and you understand how people can do it," said the Chief. "Your background in the Marine Corps and a PhD in computer science doesn't hurt either."

"How would I be able to help then?"

"The cyber crime division focuses more on crimes that compromise national security. The stuff that's happened, that's hardly a threat to the government, but it is to the financial institutions and the people that benefit from them. Even if you're not peachy keen on that - God knows we public servants aren't - lawbreaking is still being done, and as the FBI, we need to put a stop to it," explained Webber. "Between cyber and organised, we're assembling a task force to tackle the people behind this. I want you to be our civilian consultant."

Arizona exhaled loudly. "Agent Webber, you must know that I'm busy, right? I'm up for tenureship at the end of next semester, and a lot of my energy is being devoted to that," she said. "At the pace I'm working, I can't wait another year to present an application again."

"I understand," said the Chief, without really meaning it. "This isn't a pitch, though. You're my only pick, and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer." Before Arizona could interrupt him, he went on. "As a consultant, we can pay you on contract or on a retainer. When you've sat down with the other people on the task force, you can gauge the timeline and tell me how you want to arrange your payment." The Chief started getting up.

"All right," said Arizona. "Will I be driven back to my office now?"

"No, Dr Robbins," he said. "It's break time. I'm going to get some lunch at this great burger place across the road, and you're welcome to join me. Otherwise, there's coffee and something to snack on in the break room. When you're dismissed, we'll take you back to your car at the university." He started walking away.

"Sir, I don't have a car, I have a bike! Locked in my office!" Arizona called out to him, but he didn't hear her. She let out a low, exasperated growl. She needed coffee.

* * *

The FBI did have better stuff than her boring state university staff room. Arizona prodded the coffee machine sheepishly, but it did nothing. Sometimes better didn't mean easier to use.

"I got that," a voice from behind her said. A brown-skinned forearm reached over her shoulder and pressed a couple of buttons on the machine. Arizona's styrofoam cup began to fill with the fragrant liquid.

Arizona turned around to say thanks, but the words got caught in her throat as she faced the person who helped her - a tall, voluptuous Latina with thick, wavy black hair cascading down her shoulders, and full lips accentuated with red lipstick. _You're beautiful,_ Arizona wanted to say. "T-Thanks," she stammered, not wanting to gape.

The woman grinned at her. "No problem at all!" she said sincerely. "We just got this baby a couple of weeks ago, she still confuses the hell out of people." She put a keepcup underneath the spout of the machine and pressed the buttons again.

She seriously calls the coffee machine a she? Arizona smiled back, shyly. "I bet she does."

When the coffee was finished, the woman picked it up and spooned some sugar into it before securing the lid. "Well," she said to Arizona, "I'll see you around." She exited the break room back into the rush of people in the bullpen.

Arizona leaned back against the counter. _Who was that?_

* * *

An hour later, she found herself in the same meeting room. The Chief was there, as was Bailey. Slowly, other people in suits filed into the room and took a place at the table. One of them was the Latina who helped her with the coffee machine. Arizona was less disoriented this time, so she noticed that unlike the other agents, who wore button down shirts with their suits, the woman wore a scoop neck royal blue blouse. She had done away with her jacket and had the sleeves of her blouse rolled up to her elbow.

Arizona looked away before anyone caught her staring.

The Chief cleared his throat after everyone was seated. He was holding a bunch of glossy laminated papers in his hand, and started passing them out. Arizona looked down at hers. It was a takeout menu for a Chinese restaurant. "I'm sending a rookie out for a dinner run, team. It's going to be a long one, so make your pick."

A few minutes later, a fresh-faced but frazzled brunette entered the room, pen and paper in hand. The agents told her what they wanted and she shuffled out, promising to be back as soon as possible. The agents in the room called out their thanks.

The Chief cleared his throat again and the room fell silent. "You are here because I've approached you with an offer for a spot in the new collaborative task force between the cyber and the organised crime divisions. It's no secret to some of you that you are the best of the best we have ever seen on the northwest, so it's an honour to have you on this team," he said. "Now, enough of the sappy stuff. This is Dr Robbins," he gestured towards Arizona, "and she is a civilian consultant for this task force. Why don't you tell us more about yourself?" Webber gave her a look.

"Uh." Arizona shifted anxiously. "I'm Dr Arizona Robbins and I'm an assistant professor at the University of Washington's computer science department. When I was twenty-two, I enlisted in the Marine Corps straight out of college, and served for almost four years, spending my last eighteen months as the Cyber Systems Chief on camp in Kabul until," she glanced wistfully at her prosthetic leg, "my early discharge." She noticed that people were staring at her. "When I felt better enough, I decided to study for a Master's degree with the intention of going into teaching. It's marginally less dangerous." The agents chuckled at this. "Agent Webber believes that I could be helpful to your case, but I guess that's up to us to decide as a group."

"Thanks, Dr Robbins," said the Chief. He started to introduce the other members of the task force. From the organised crime division were Owen Hunt, Mark Sloan and the gorgeous woman, whose name, she learnt, was Callie Torres. Besides Bailey, Derek Shepherd and Cristina Yang were from the cyber crime division. "Agent Hunt will lead the organised crime front, and Agent Shepherd will lead the cyber crime front." Arizona looked at the petite brunette at the back of the room that Webber hasn't introduced yet. Webber noticed, and followed her line of sight. "Oh, and we have Special Agent Lexie Grey as a tech analyst. I poached her from Science and Technology. She'll be working mainly under your direction."

Arizona smiled reassuringly at the younger woman, whose eyebrows were knitted with worry. "I'm looking forward to working with you, Agent Grey."

"I'd hate to get us started without dinner, team," said the Chief, "but I don't want to make a long night even longer, so we're going to get started on catching Dr Robbins up. Hunt, do you want to give us the rundown?"

It was almost ten o'clock in the evening when the meeting wrapped up. Everyone was having a giant stretch when Bailey approached Arizona. "Dr Robbins, the car is waiting to take you back to the university," she said.

Arizona sighed. "Actually, Bailey, would it be all right if the car took me straight home? My bicycle is locked in my office and the buildings are already closed this time of night so I have no way of getting there."

"I'm sure that won't be a problem," said Bailey. "Just tell the driver."

"Thanks." Arizona smiled at Bailey, who gave her a nod before heading towards the elevators. From the corner of her eye, she saw Callie Torres picking up her bag from her desk, holding a sleeping baby girl - perhaps just over a year old - in her other arm. Arizona did a double take and watched as the woman rocked the baby gently in her arms.

To her surprise, Callie was met halfway by Mark Sloan, who offered to carry the baby. Arizona couldn't peel her eyes away as Callie handed the baby to the strapping, handsome agent, who gave the baby a kiss on the forehead before getting her comfortable on his shoulder.

It's only been a day, and working at the FBI has already disappointed her.

* * *

"Honey, I'm home!" Arizona announced wearily. She collapsed on the couch, tugged her pants off and detached her prosthetic leg. Her best friend and flatmate, Dr Teddy Altman, emerged from her bedroom with a book and her glasses.

"Hey Arizona, you're home late." Teddy noticed her friend's bare legs. "You okay?" Teddy was a few years older than Arizona and served as a surgeon in the Navy, but was assigned with the Marine Corps in Afghanistan. If it wasn't for Teddy, Arizona would probably have lost more than her leg.

"Leg's just a bit sore," said Arizona. Teddy sat next to her and massaged the limb gently. "I had an interesting day today." When Teddy gave her an inquiring look, she continued. "This suit came to one of my classes and said that the FBI wanted to talk to me. I was there for the rest of the day."

Teddy looked concerned. "For what?"

"They want me to consult on a case. Some hackers stealing some money from banks and holding NASDAQ hostage. You've heard about it on the news," replied Arizona.

"Oh, you're helping them out on that? I can't imagine they'd be stumped by that."

"They're used to one person hacking and draining millions of dollars, and they're used to a group of people crashing a website for shits and giggles. But a group of people hacking and draining millions of dollars in a seemingly synchronised attack? Yeah, that sends the feds running for help."

Teddy nodded slowly. "You're holding out on me though, Robbins," she said.

Arizona frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Were there any hot agents there today? Anyone who would tickle my fancy?" Teddy wagged her eyebrows conspiratorially.

"Well, I'm not familiar with what tickles your fancy, Teddy, but someone tickled mine."

"Who is it?"

"Just a Special Agent working in the organised crime division." Arizona shrugged. "Curvy, gorgeous hair, hot, looks like a good kisser."

"Wow," said Teddy, eyes wide. "What are you waiting for? Make your move. Find out if she likes the ladies or not!"

Arizona swatted her friend lightly. "You act like such a frat boy sometimes," she remarked.

"No," said Teddy. "I've just been with Marines far too many times. They're basically like hyped up frat boys that know how to shoot a gun."

"Exactly," said Arizona.

"Anyway, this Sexy Special Agent of yours? What's stopping you?"

Arizona winced at Teddy's new nickname for Callie Torres. "I think she's married. She picked a baby up from the office daycare and she was being all family like and intimate with the baby with another agent."

Teddy patted Arizona's shoulder. "That sucks," she said. She adopted a more cheerful tone, "I'm pretty sure it's bad practice to sleep with your colleagues anyway. Especially ones that are potentially married and bearing children."

"Yes, you would totally know that, wouldn't you, Teddy?" teased Arizona. Teddy left the Marines five years after Arizona's discharge, and was subsequently offered a post as an attending trauma surgeon at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. That hospital had a reputation for being a rather steamy rumour mill, and Arizona knew that Teddy was an active participant in keeping the mill spinning, if the young doctors doing the walk of shame in the morning were anything to go by.

"Let's go to Joe's tomorrow night," Teddy suggested suddenly..

"What? Why?"

"Well, you look like you're in dire need to cure a dry spell, and a bar full of doctors means that they might even find your leg sexy."

"Everyone finds my leg sexy," said Arizona adamantly. "And my dry spell hasn't even been that long. Maybe a week and a half, a couple of weeks at the most?"

"Sure, sure, whatever you say." Teddy smirked. "Do you need any help getting ready for bed or anything? Otherwise I'm going to turn in."

Arizona shook her head. "No, Teddy, I'll be okay. Thanks for the offer anyway. Good night." She listened to the sound of Teddy's footsteps head to her bedroom. When her friend's door clicked close, Arizona closed her eyes, took a couple of deep, slow breaths, then reached for her prosthetic.

* * *

The next afternoon, after finishing up her two classes and office hours for the day, Arizona rode her bike to the FBI headquarters. When she entered the building, Callie Torres, not Bailey like she expected, was waiting for her. "Good morning, Dr Robbins," she said, smiling warmly. She handed Arizona an ID card, and the blonde was hyperaware of their fingers brushing against each other. "The Chief asked me to run one for you, since you're going to be here a lot."

Arizona pinned the ID card to her hip, like she saw the other agents do. She followed Callie through the turnstiles to the elevators.

When the elevator doors shut, Callie turned to Arizona. "You rode your bike here?" she asked.

"It's not far from where I live," said Arizona.

"About eight miles," said Callie. She noticed Arizona's raised eyebrow. "I read your file." She cocked her head slightly to the side. "Cars make you nervous, don't they?"

Arizona was confused. "Sorry?"

"Bailey mentioned something last night. Apparently you were a little shifty in the car."

Arizona swallowed. She had to beg Teddy for a ride this morning, even if she hated Teddy's sensible doctor's sedan. She hated cars - all cars, she refused to enter one unless she absolutely had to. But she had to lie to Callie. "Bailey told me to come with her without telling me what the FBI needed me for," she said evenly. "What kind of person wouldn't be nervous in that situation?"

Callie considered this for a moment. "You're right," she said. "I apologise for assuming. I'm a profiler, you see. This stuff just comes out unfiltered."

Arizona smirked at Callie. "So, Agent Torres, you're just showing off then?"

Callie grinned right back at her. "Yes, I suppose I am."

* * *

Arizona sat by Lexie's office for most of the afternoon. They ate Subway sandwiches while talking about a plan of attack on getting intel on the unsubs. During a lull in their discussion, Arizona leaned forward, "I know my file is readily available for you guys to read, so those who bothered looking know about me, yet I know nothing about the people on the team," she told Lexie. "So, tell me something about yourself, Agent Grey. How did you get into the FBI?"

"I did my undergrad in computer systems engineering," said Lexie. "My sister's boyfriend when I was in my junior year was Agent Shepherd, who was fresh out of the academy. They're married now. Anyway, Derek's line of work seemed quite interesting and I got amazing grades, so I applied for a spot in the academy at his encouragement. I was accepted right after graduation."

Arizona asked more questions about the other team members. She found out that Owen Hunt was in Baghdad until three years ago, and was a decorated veteran who got straight into the FBI when he came home. Mark Sloan and Shepherd were buddies from the academy - codenamed by their peers as McSteamy and McDreamy, respectively, but were only reunited when Sloan was assigned to Seattle after a few years in New York. She found out that Bailey went to Yale Law School, and that Cristina Yang was lured from a booming career and rockstar reputation in Silicon Valley. Finally, she asked, "What about Agent Torres?"

"She studied psych and criminology in college, then she was on the forensics team in the Miami PD, and the FBI wanted her for their crime lab there," replied Lexie. "I was a rookie when she assigned here, so we were new together, and she told me she only had three years of experience in the FBI."

"I saw her with a baby last night," said Arizona.

"Oh, you mean Sofia? Isn't she the cutest?" the younger woman gushed.

"Is she married?"

Lexie lowered her voice. "No, Sofia is her daughter with Mark," she said. "They had a fling and Sofia happened. They're not together anymore though, but they have a weird parenting arrangement and it works."

Arizona had to fight herself from visibly sighing in relief. "Anyway, Agent Grey," she turned her attention back to the screen, "do you happen to have any screenshots of the NASDAQ ransom note?"

"Um, yes, I think so," said Lexie. She pressed a few keys and an image came up. The NASDAQ website homepage was a stark white, with bold black letters in the middle. It was a bog standard ransom note, and there wasn't a clear sign of a signature.

Arizona squinted and found something unusual on the bottom left of the ransom note. She took the mouse from Lexie, pulled the image into an editing software, and reversed the background colour. A silhouette of a white combat helmet, similar to the ones characters wore in games such as Counter-Strike, became visible. "Oh my god," said Arizona.

"What is that?" asked Lexie.

"A discovery." Arizona shot straight out of her seat and ran across the bullpen, up the stairs to the Chief's office. "Agent Webber!"

The Chief looked up from his computer screen. "Dr Robbins, what's up?"

"Agent Grey and I found something that you think may be of note," replied Arizona.

"Tell Agent Hunt or Agent Shepherd, Dr Robbins. I'm only overseeing the task force, I'm actually quite hands off on this," said the Chief.

"I'll tell them, sir," Arizona bit her lip, "but I want to ask if it's okay to take on another consultant."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the great feedback for the first chapter. Excerpts for the following chapters will be uploaded regularly on my writing Tumblr **wip-alterocentrist**. Enjoy :)

* * *

Arizona marched into the mostly empty grad students' lounge. "Alex!" she said loudly, to a guy who had headphones clamped over his ears, eyes absorbed on his laptop screen. "Alex Karev!" She waved her hands for emphasis.

This got the guy's attention. He pulled his headphones off. "Hey, Dr Robbins. I'm doing the thing you told me to do," he said. Alex Karev was Arizona's TA, and, although she hated to say it to his face, her protegé among the handful of PhD candidates that she supervised. Sometimes he was lazy, oftentimes he was arrogant, but he was always brilliant.

"I bet you are, Karev, and that's super, but can I have a word with you in my office, please?"

Convincing Webber, Hunt and Shepherd about her need for another civilian consultant was easy. After explaining to them that the emblem she found on the NASDAQ ransom note was associated with a group of gamers-cum-hackers - she avoided referring to them as a "guild" so as not to confuse the feds - she told them that her TA was active in these circles, and was in fact doing his thesis on them. "There's probably no bigger expert on this at the moment than my guy," were her words.

After Webber got Bailey to run a search for Alex Karev, they agreed to bring him on, ignoring the traffic violations he incurred in his college years. Of course, they didn't know anything about the laws he was never caught breaking.

* * *

"Rules," Arizona announced, as her and Alex rode the elevator up to the bullpen, "one: do not mouth off to any of the suits. Two: do not hook up with any of the suits. Three: do not brag about this to your gamer friends."

"Robbins," Alex was the only one out of Arizona's candidates that got to call her that, "you think I'm going to tell my buddies that I'm cooperating with the feds? Way to ruin my reputation, seriously."

"Well, just remember the other two rules, please," snapped Arizona. She knew that women found Alex, with his rugged looks, attractive, and his reputation for being a whiz around computers didn't hurt either. And there were a couple of female rookies that may fall prey to his charm. They entered the bullpen and Arizona already saw a brunette - the one who Webber often sent to get dinner - stare at Alex.

"The Chief and Agent Shepherd want to speak to you without me, then they'll lead you to the office all the techies on this case will work in," she told him. She pointed at the direction of the Chief's office, where Agent Shepherd was already waving him over.

"Is that pretty boy one of my bosses?" Alex asked Arizona out of the corner of his mouth.

"That _pretty boy_," Arizona said through gritted teeth, "is one of the agents in charge of this task force. I happen to hear that he's excellent at his job, despite looking like a Disney prince, so a little respect please."

"Okay, boss," said Alex.

"Now get up there."

* * *

An hour later, there was a rapping on Lexie's office door. Alex was there, accompanied by Agent Shepherd. "Mr Karev here has a fascinating well of knowledge," said Shepherd. This got a proud smile out of Arizona. "The Chief is giving you two days to give the rest of the team an in depth briefing on the suspects." Shepherd smiled at them before leaving.

Alex trudged into the room, setting his backpack down and sitting on an empty chair. "I just spouted what I could of my research and personal experiences to two suits," he said, ignoring Lexie. "What the hell did you get me into, Robbins?"

Arizona rolled her eyes. "Alex, this is Special Agent Lexie Grey, the tech analyst on this task force," she said. "Agent Grey, this is Alex Karev, my teaching assistant and PhD candidate. Now play nice."

"Hey," Lexie said shyly.

Alex grunted softly at her, then turned his attention back to Arizona. "I'm supposed to be writing a thesis."

"Chill, Karev, you never cared this much about academics before. Agent Grey and I are great at computers, yeah, but our skills are useless without an insider," said Arizona. Alex continued glaring at her. "I'll make sure your work here counts towards your doctorate. Happy?"

Alex nodded. "So, why is the northwest division of the FBI investigating stuff that were traced back to the east coast?" he asked Lexie.

"The bank robberies weren't traced back anywhere," corrected Lexie. "But, to answer your question, the time difference between Seattle and the east coast is perfect. If the perps pull a stunt off, it's when the traffic is less busy, so they can do it faster without compromising the servers of whatever network they're going into."

"Because it's cleaner that way," said Alex.

Lexie grinned. "Exactly. But instead of having the FBI out in New York waiting up at night, we'd rather just be three hours behind here in Seattle. We're more alert and there are more layers for us to cover behind if they decide to run a trace."

"That's clever," said Arizona.

"It is," said Lexie. "Also, the New York division are real prissy pricks that can't miss their beauty sleep." The words sounded odd coming from Lexie, and the two academics gave her a confused look. "Those were Mark's words, not mine."

* * *

"Little Grey, c'mon, you've been working so hard. We're going to get some Mexican food down the block." Mark Sloan's handsome, salt and pepper head appeared at the doorway of Lexie's office. He looked at Arizona. "Dr Robbins, you're welcome to come as well, but who's this dude?" He nodded towards Alex.

Alex stood up to introduce himself. "I'm consulting too," he explained.

"Ah, the computer games expert," said Sloan. From any other person it would sound derisive, but Sloan actually sounded impressed.

"Yes," said Alex, "that's me. So, this Mexican place?"

"A FBI secret." Sloan winked. "Let's go. Whole team is coming."

Alex turned to his mentor. "Robbins, you coming?"

Arizona was already shrugging into her jacket. "What are you waiting for, Karev?" she asked cheerfully. "Let's get some burritos!"

* * *

Sloan led most of the conversation while munching his nachos, telling stories about his days at the academy, with Shepherd chipping in here and there at their shenanigans. Arizona observed that the third male agent in the task force, Hunt, was mostly quiet, but liked to laugh.

"Wait a minute, where's Torres?" asked Sloan. The other people at the table craned their heads to look for her.

"She's on the phone," said Bailey.

"Talking to Hahn again? I swear, those two need to sort themselves out," said Sloan. "Sofia has been at my place for three nights straight just because those two women keep getting into lovers' quarrels."

Arizona took special effort to prevent her head from snapping up at "two women" and "lovers' quarrels". _Callie was gay? Or at least, judging by her situation with Sloan, bisexual?_

"I thought you love Sofia, Mark," said Lexie.

"Oh, he does," Cristina Yang spoke up. "He just loves his sex life more."

The agents laughed while Sloan raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, hey, team, it's not that. If Callie can find love in her life, why can't I, too?"

Cristina's nose crinkled. "Don't let those words come out of your mouth again."

Alex decided to jump into the conversation. "Isn't he getting a little old, though?" he asked Cristina. "Who would want to jump into bed with that if they can get into bed with me?"

"Alex, I think that's enough chest thumping now," said Arizona.

"Just saying," said Alex. "Or what about that Abercrombie model that tags along with you?"

"Avery? His youth is being misspent on being a serial monogamist," said Sloan. "I think he's more of Shepherd's protegé, not mine. Right, Derek?"

The men laughed.

"Too much testosterone," said Bailey, waving the men off. "So, Dr Robbins, are you married? Engaged? Going steady with anyone?"

When Arizona couldn't reply, Alex did it for her. "Robbins is a bit of a hit with the ladies as well. We compete, I lose a lot of the time, because I don't have dimples," he said, smirking. Shortly afterwards, Alex coughed as Arizona's elbow lodged itself into his stomach.

"Ah, Dr Robbins is a lady lover," drawled Sloan. "Perhaps you can give Callie some advice regarding her first lady love." His thumb jerked in Callie's direction. The dark-haired woman was already walking back towards their table.

_"First lady love_"? Arizona thought. She had determined that Callie was at least bi, and she is knew that Callie was hot as hell, but she was also aware that Callie was spoken for and had a child. However, the only thing about Callie that marginally turned Arizona off was the fact that she was, in Arizona's terms, a "newborn". _You can stop ogling her now_, Robbins.

"Okay, Sloan, you have to shut up now," said Bailey, firmly. "No ribbing Callie about her love life. Not at this table."

Sloan nodded in agreement, then flashed his biggest smile at Callie. "Hey, Torres! I saved you some nachos," he told her brightly.

Callie sat down next to her friend and started picking at the basket of nachos Sloan pushed towards her. She looked distraught and her deep brown eyes seemed lonely. "Mark," Callie spoke up, "you're watching Sofia tonight." A silence fell over the table.

Sloan's hand rested on top of Callie's and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Yeah, Torres, it's all good," he said.

* * *

The sound of her phone ringing awoke Arizona. The clock on her bedside table displayed that it was two o'clock in the morning. "It's Dr Robbins," she greeted groggily.

The voice on the other end surprised her. "Dr Robbins, it's Agent Callie Torres. I'm sorry for waking you."

Arizona sat up rapidly.. "Oh, Agent Torres? Is there a problem?"

"Dalton Heywood Moore," said Callie. "Heard of it?"

"The cyber security consulting firm, yeah?" Arizona rubbed her eyes.

"They called the switchboard. Someone got into their system tonight and got into their client list. By the time they got their security guy to plug the leak, about fifty or so sets of details have been viewed," Callie told her. "The Chief asked me to head over there now."

"I don't understand what you're asking from me, Agent Torres."

"You need to come with me to examine the crime scene"

"It's two in the morning, Agent Torres. What about Agent Yang? Agent Bailey? Or Agent Grey?"

"Yang and Bailey are at HQ working with Shepherd, Little Grey doesn't have the particular eye for the crime scene that I'm wanting and these hardcore private sector guys will be more placated with a civilian poking around in their computers instead of the feds," explained Callie.

Arizona sighed. "Give me twenty minutes." She reached for her leg.

"Make that ten, Dr Robbins, I'm right on your doorstep."

"Sorry?" Arizona paused. "What do you mean 'right on my doorstep'?"

"You've got a nice townhouse here, Dr Robbins," said Callie. "I'll see you in ten minutes."

* * *

Moments later, Arizona opened her front door to a Callie wearing a plum scoop neck top, dark jeans with Chelsea boots and a matching leather jacket. "You..." she started to say. She tried not to let her mouth gape open too widely.

"Yup, I'm in plainclothes. Didn't have the time to find an ironed shirt to go with my suit." She gestured to Arizona's all black outfit - t-shirt, jeans, jacket and combat boots. "You look more of a fed than I do right now."

Arizona played shyly with the sleeve of her jacket. "Yeah, maybe you should try be the computer scientist, too, huh?" she joked. "Come on, they're gonna be waiting for us." She looked for the sedan or the SUV that FBI agents took with them on the field, only to find a Ford Thunderbird, bright as a fire engine, parked at the curb. She turned back to Callie. "Where's the field vehicle?"

"I didn't have the time to get one. Chief wanted me on this right away." The dark-haired woman looked apologetic.

Arizona shifted nervously. "That looks like a death trap," she said. "I'm not getting in there."

"Dr Robbins, we have no choice," said Callie, sighing.

"Uh, yeah we do," said the blonde, standing her ground. She reached for a set of keys hanging on a hook by a doorway and tossed it at Callie. "We're going to borrow my flatmate's car." She pointed at Teddy's discreet silver sedan, which was passable for a field vehicle. "I'm sure she'll be cool with it, as long as we don't get into any car chases."

* * *

Callie and Arizona were escorted by a security guard to the control room of Dalton Heywood Moore. Callie flashed her badge to the dishevelled, gray haired man walking towards her. "Special Agent Torres," she introduced herself. "This is Dr Robbins, our civilian consultant on this case."

The man nodded at them. "It's great to have you over here so promptly," he said. "My name's Peter Irvine. I'm the head of security at Dalton Heywood Moore."

"Can you give us a brief recap on what happened, Mr Irvine?" asked Callie.

"At around 12:45 I was called by one of the night guys, saying that someone is on one of our machines, copying and pasting client information somewhere else - perhaps a storage location in the cloud. I told him to take down the specific client names that were being pasted and I came over as soon as I could."

"Can we have a look at this list, please?"

Mr Irvine nodded. "Sure. There's around a dozen of them," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a neatly folded sheet of paper. He handed it to Callie. "They're all -"

"Venture capitalists," finished Arizona, who was looking over Callie's shoulder. "The biggest ones on the west coast outside of Silicon Valley. Agent Torres, these people have a lot of money. Our suspects are wanting to fund something."

"Like, money laundering?" Callie asked the blonde.

Arizona shrugged. "I don't know," she said. She faced the head of security. "Mr Irvine, you said that the copy and pasting came from one of your machines. Have you pinpointed which one?"

"We usually turn our terminals off when work finishes for the day, but they can be accessed remotely from our computers at home," said Mr Irvine. "I was told that around seven computers were turned on at the time, and the night guys assumed that they were all being accessed remotely."

"Were the computers still powered on when you arrived?"

"A couple of them still are turned on right now, but the rest are turned off now," replied Mr Irvine.

Arizona looked at Callie, who was looking at something in the distance. "Agent Torres, got anything?"

"Mr Irvine, your computer is turned on," Callie remarked.

The head of security turned to the direction of his office, the telltale glow of a monitor shining through the windows. "It's not supposed to be," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"You don't access your terminal remotely, Mr Irvine?" asked Arizona.

"Dr Robbins," the man sighed, "I've done this for a living for decades. I don't want to be around it when I'm home. If there's a real problem when I'm not in the office, I drive over."

"Well, we're gonna have to take a look," said Callie. The three of them walked across the control room to Mr Irvine's office door, which he willingly unlocked for them. Arizona got to the terminal first. She gasped.

The screen was matte black background, and on the foreground, in a stark, sickly white, was the familiar silhouette of a combat helmet.

Callie reached for her phone. "Hunt? It's Torres," she said. "Suspects are the same from the last two incidents. They've taken over the head of security's computer. Oh, you want to access it remotely? Put Bailey on the phone." She nodded at Arizona and dictated the instructions Bailey was telling her. "Holy shit, Hunt. Thanks for letting me know. Yeah, I'll tell Dr Robbins. Bye." She hung up.

"What?"

"They found a keystroke logger on Mr Irvine's terminal," said Callie. "Yang's killed it though. No one's watching us now."

"What?" Arizona repeated, shocked. "That explains why they had all the admin passwords to even view client details. Mr Irvine, the only way a keystroke logger could have been installed is if someone physically sat down here and plugged a storage device into the terminal."

"I know that, Dr Robbins," snapped Mr Irvine. "But I swear I never leave this terminal unattended without locking it, and locking my office door."

"They could have accessed it remotely through your other computer," suggested Callie. "They could install it that way, couldn't they, Dr Robbins?"

Arizona nodded. "Have you left your other computer unattended?"

Mr Irvine paused to think for a moment, then slapped his forehead. He swore. "I was at a café, around two weeks ago on a Sunday," he said. "I was just reading the news and doing some personal emails on my laptop, but I wanted to go to the bathroom, so I asked a young man to watch it for me. I mean, I've done it there before without any problems."

"Did the laptop looked like it had been touched in any way when you returned to it?" asked Arizona.

"No, but if the logger had been installed that way, then it may as well have been one of the other times I left my laptop alone with a stranger."

"But, Dr Robbins," Callie had to interrupt, "wouldn't you need a username and password to get into the remote access program?"

"Yeah," said Arizona. "But the suspects researched enough about Mr Irvine to know he was going to be at that café on that Sunday, or any of the other times he had been there... Getting a username and password would be a piece of cake."

Callie looked at Mr Irvine. "She's right, Agent Torres," the man said wearily.

"We'll figure this out," said Callie. Her lips were pursed determinedly. "Thank you for all your help, Mr Irvine. We'll contact you if we need any more information from you or your staff. Let's go, Dr Robbins."

* * *

"You can stop calling me Dr Robbins, you know," Arizona told Callie as they got on the offramp from the freeway. "It just sounds so... formal."

"Part of the job, Dr Robbins," said Callie. A smile was playing on her lips, though. "The FBI values professionalism."

"Arizona," the blonde corrected.

"Arizona," said Callie, slowly. "Like the state?"

The blonde tried not to roll her eyes. This had been going on since she was in middle school. "Like the battleship," she explained. "My grandfather was on the USS Arizona when they bombed Pearl Harbor. Saved nineteen people before he drowned."

"Wow. So you were raised to be a little badass?"

Arizona laughed. "No. I was daddy's little girl," she said. "But with a name like Arizona, I knew how to be dirty on the playground, so yeah, I suppose I learned to be a little badass."

"Is that why you joined the Marines? Because of your grandfather?" asked Callie.

Arizona swallowed. "Yeah," she lied. "It's a family thing. My dad was a Marine, so was my brother." That part wasn't lying.

"And you said you were a Cyber Systems Chief?"

"That's right," said Arizona.

"What's that like?"

"It's nothing like the Vietnam days when the communications officer would have to run out the battlefield with a phone strapped to his back, no," said Arizona. "But getting contact back to base when the enemy has opened fire on you? I can't say that's any better."

"You made it though," said Callie.

Arizona's hand unconsciously rubbed at the strap of her leg. "Most of me did," she muttered.

Callie gave her an understanding look. "I know about your leg, Arizona," she said.

"How?"

"It's in your file," said Callie. "Also, you walk funny." She shook her head when Arizona looked at her incredulously. "It's imperceptible to most people but nothing gets past me," she explained.

"Right. You are the forensics expert and all," said Arizona. "So, do you think we make a pretty good team?"

"The questions you asked Mr Irvine were pretty good. We got some solid stuff we could use to track our suspects' next move. Did you learn that from the Marines?" Callie sounded impressed.

"I'm an academic, Agent Torres," said Arizona. "I know good questions."

"It's Callie, and yeah, we do make a good team." She pulled into Arizona's driveway, and noticed that all the lights in the house were turned on.

Arizona noticed too. "Uh oh." The blonde unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car as soon as Callie killed the engine, arms raised in surrender.

Teddy Altman bounded out the front door, a fluffy robe over her pajamas, her dark blonde hair flying in rage. "Arizona Robbins!" she yelled. "How dare you take my car out for a secret spin on a night sojourn with -" Teddy stopped when she noticed who emerged from the driver's seat. "Callie?"

Arizona looked at Callie, who appeared equally shocked. "Teddy? You're Arizona's flatmate?"

"Hold up!" Arizona exclaimed. "How do you two know each other?"

Teddy folded her arms. "Callie is Erica Hahn's fiancée," she said. "Erica Hahn is the cardiothoracic surgery attending at the hospital."

Callie winced. "_Ex_-fiancée, actually. Erica and I have decided to break it off. Earlier this evening, actually. Before I was called into work."

Arizona reached out to hug Callie, but stopped herself. Teddy, on the other hand, made a "Hmm" noise, her eyes on the ground. "That explains why Hahn had been unbearable over the past few days. I didn't think she could get any more obnoxious," she said quietly. She looked up at the dark-haired woman. "Do you wanna tell me how you and Arizona know each other?"

"I'm on the FBI. Arizona consults for us," explained Callie.

"Oh, I know all that." Teddy gave a small, dismissive wave. "I didn't think you and Arizona would be working together."

"Small world, I suppose," said Callie. She looked at her watch. "Well, I better get going. We need to brief everyone tomorrow on what happened at Dalton Heywood Moore," she told Arizona. She handed Teddy her keys and walked back to her Thunderbird.

"Callie," called Arizona. The other woman turned around. From this distance, Arizona suddenly picked up on the sadness in the agent's dark eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good night."

"You too, Arizona." Callie got in the car, started the engine, then drove off.

Arizona made her way back into the house, where Teddy was leaning against the back of the couch in the living room. "She's the Sexy Special Agent, isn't she?" the surgeon asked her.

Arizona rolled her eyes. "Good night, Teddy," she said, making her way to her room and shutting the door.

"I know you, Robbins!" Teddy teased from the living room.

Shrugging her jacket off, Arizona ignored her friend as she undressed. She took her boots and jeans off, then sat on her bed and took her leg off. She didn't bother to change her shirt and instead reached around to take her bra off. Her phone started ringing again. _What now?_ "Dr Robbins," she said.

"Dr Robbins, it's Agent Webber," the deep voice on the other end said. "Torres told me about what you two found out at Dalton Heywood Moore tonight. Do you mind if you and Mr Karev can give the report on the suspects tomorrow? We need to speed the investigation up a little now that we have some potential new targets."

Arizona sighed. She was too buzzed to sleep anyway. "Sure, Agent Webber." She reached for her laptop and fired it up. "Meeting at 2pm?"

"Sounds perfect," said Webber. "Thank you, Dr Robbins. Good night."

Arizona hung up, then scrolled through her contact list to call Alex. He was not going to be happy.

* * *

The next morning, Arizona and Alex watched from the breakfast counter as Teddy exited her bedroom, fully dressed and bag in hand. "Hey Karev, nice seeing you here." The surgeon smirked. "Two dates in one night? Wow, Arizona, didn't know you had it in you," she joked.

Alex turned to Arizona. "What's she talking about?"

"Oh, you didn't tell her about how Callie dropped you off last night?"

"It was a work thing," said Arizona. "And yes, I already told Alex. Now, don't you have to go to work or something?"

"Touchy," said Teddy. "I'm just getting my coffee and I'm out of here." She walked to the coffee maker and tried to pour some in her keepcup. "What? It's empty! Arizona!"

Arizona shrugged. "I had to call Alex over at four in the morning. How do you think he still looks so happy right now?" The two blondes looked at the younger man, who was scowling at his mentor.

"Yeah, I'm really happy right now, Robbins," growled Alex, before taking a swig of coffee.

Teddy laughed. "Oh well, I'll stop for coffee on the way to work. Bye geeks, play nice!"

Alex waited until he heard Teddy pull out of the driveway before asking Arizona, "So, what's up with you and Agent Torres?"

"That's none of your business, Karev," snapped Arizona.

"Hey, I can tell that you both find each other hot."

"We don't have time for this right now." Arizona was irritated. "We have a report to finish by 2pm. Can we just drop the subject, please?"

Alex took that as his cue to back off. "All right, Arizona. Calm down," he said. He turned his attention back to his computer screen. "I'm researching, I'm researching." He smirked. "This isn't the last we'll talk about this, though," he told Arizona under his breath.

The blonde had no choice but to smack the back of his head.

* * *

Owen Hunt couldn't help but let out a gruff laugh upon reading the first page of the file that Alex was passing around. "Combat Tyrants, seriously?" He laughed some more. "Some of us here have been in wars, and a bunch of clowns think they're Combat Tyrants?"

"They're one of the best clans on the west coast," explained Alex.

"Sorry, clans?" asked Hunt.

"Groups of gamers that play online as a team. Clans fight for domination over a certain online platform of a game," said Alex. "In this case, the Combat Tyrants play the Call of Duty franchise with other PC gamers."

The agents looked incredibly befuddled, except for Cristina. "So, how did some gamers get into robbing banks?" she asked. "It seems like a strange diversion from LAN parties and acting like manbabies on Reddit."

"Speaking of LAN parties," Arizona started, "The Combat Tyrants hold giant LAN parties a few times a year. And I mean giant. People travel from all over the world for a weekend of nonstop gaming."

"We suspect that this is where a lot of the stolen money is being laundered into," said Alex. "The Combat Tyrants are just gamers, after all, and these things cost a lot to run. They do recoup much of the cost in the end, but the spending money that they have may be stolen. But we don't have access to information on their financial transactions." He looked pointedly at the agents.

"I'll retrieve that for you, Karev," Hunt told him.

"Thank you, Agent Hunt."

"Just how much money is there in gaming?" asked Shepherd.

"Not a lot," said Alex. "But you'd still be surprised. Although, clans don't usually have the money to run LAN parties of this scale, so they'd have to be getting the money from somewhere. Sponsorship, merchandise..."

"Hacking into banks?" interjected Bailey.

"How did they pay for the previous LAN parties they've thrown?" asked Hunt.

"They had sponsorship from Dell, which makes the popular gaming computer, Alienware," Arizona told the agents. "They also got some money from the company that developed the Call of Duty series. But as you can see on about page seven of that file, Dell pulled their sponsorship with the clan aligned themselves with WikiLeaks, LulzSec and Anonymous."

"At the time when the FBI and Interpol were falling all over themselves trying to arrest teenagers who DDos'd a couple of government websites, they wanted reputable gamers, not ambitious hackers," said Cristina. "And these guys just happened to be both. Yeah, that would paint an unsavoury picture of Dell."

"Exactly, Agent Yang." Arizona grinned at the usually taciturn, but otherwise competent agent. "The Combat Tyrants would have lost a significant amount of their funding without Dell, so they'd need to go to alternative sources."

"Why would they flash their clan logo everywhere when they commit crimes, though?"

"That's a good question, Agent Grey," said Arizona. "The short answer is: anonymity. They are known by their usernames and don't reveal much else, so they're hard to trace back. Trust me, Alex and I dealt with these independently. During their LAN parties, they play amongst the players and you'd have to be pretty clued in to discern who the organisers are."

"Aren't online games paid by subscription?" Lexie followed up. "Why couldn't we just look at the credit card details?"

Arizona gave the young agent a knowing smile. "We're not just dealing with reputable gamers and ambitious hackers here," she said. "We're dealing with credit card frauds."

"What do you propose our next step should be, Dr Robbins?" asked Shepherd.

"We go undercover and enter a clan into one of their LAN parties," said Arizona. She handed out promotional flyers for the LAN party. "This is a team-specific competition called cLAN. It's in three months' time. Alex and I will have enough time to train and coordinate with you guys."

The agents gave each other looks of surprise. "You gotta be kidding me, Robbins," growled Sloan, looking straight at her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and I'm very happy that you enjoy this story. My second semester at university is starting up soon so updates may start becoming irregular. However, I write chapters in advance so there shouldn't be too much of a terrible lag, though I will have to put this story on short hiatuses at various points over the next 3-4 months. Remember that there are excerpts on Tumblr under the URL **wip-alterocentrist**. Enjoy :)

**Next chapter:** The agents and Arizona conduct their very first training LAN party. Teddy asks Arizona to keep a secret. Arizona runs into some professional trouble at the university.

* * *

Mark Sloan's voice was firm when he declared, "We are not waiting three months to catch these goons. They will pull other stunts, and they will get away with it. We need to act now."

"With all due respect, Agent Sloan," started Arizona, "these people never leave their desks to commit a crime. We don't know who they are and we don't know where they are, so acting now means acting blindly."

"Dr Robbins has a point, Mark," Callie spoke up evenly. Arizona sent her a grateful smile. "We don't have enough information to conduct a sting operation."

"I have to agree with Callie and Dr Robbins." Agent Hunt leaned back in his seat and folded his arms. "Besides, I'm sure the corporations won't miss their money too much if the perps do anything," he added wryly.

"We can get the information if we want to. We're the FBI." Sloan pounded his fist on the table for emphasis. "I'm not listening to a couple of wacko schoolteachers tell me how to do my job!"

Alex rose from his seat. "Hey, you need to reel it in, Sloan!"

"Mark," Shepherd said calmly, "even we in the cyber crimes division know how much time it'll take to trace these guys without them knowing. Now, Dr Robbins and Mr Karev are doing us a huge favour by giving us insights on the culture of our suspects." He turned to the two academics. "You were saying something about assembling a team to go undercover at the LAN party?"

"It needs to be an all women team," said Alex.

Arizona looked at Alex. "We didn't talk about this. Why?"

"All women clans are quite rare so dudes jump at the chance to LAN with them. Registering an all women clan would be a guarantee for a good-sized team to attend the party and do some staking out. They might even give you a discount," he explained. "That, and all the other men in this room would look out of place at a LAN party."

"What do you mean?" asked Sloan. He was still glaring at Alex.

"Well, Agent Sloan, you have too much of that George Clooney vibe going on," Alex told him. The younger man looked at Hunt, "Too intense." He looked at Shepherd. "Too Disney." The female agents laughed at his comments. Alex turned to his mentor. "Robbins, I assume that you can play a decent game of Call of Duty?"

"Of course I can," said Arizona. She didn't mention that she had beaten Alex at the last compsci LAN party. Twice. While slightly intoxicated. "I can lead the clan."

"I can play an awesome game of Black Ops myself," said Cristina. "So I'm in. Only if I'm second-in-command to Dr Robbins, though."

"I'll play," said Lexie.

Mark turned to the brunette. "You're a_ gamer_?"

She gave him a look. "My sister, my brother-in-law and I all studied computers in college, Mark. What do you think?"

"Five people is minimum for a clan," said Alex. "Agent Torres and Agent Bailey?"

"I'd have to learn how to play," said Bailey. "But sure, I'm up for it."

Callie threw her hands up in the air. "Yes, I suppose I'm in," she said, grinning.

Arizona grinned back at her. "Awesome!"

"Wait," Bailey kneaded her forehead in thought, "won't an all women clan be too conspicuous?" she asked.

Alex smirked at Bailey. "I thought you wanted to smoke the perps out, Agent Bailey? Attract their attention, then you'll get your guys."

* * *

"Alexander Michael Karev, you are a genius!" Arizona gushed at her protegé, once they were seated in Lexie's office again. "I can't believe you hid that plan of yours from me."

Alex winced at the use of his full name, and was about to tell Arizona not to say it again in front of Lexie, but realised that the brunette - who was busy on the computer - probably knew anyway. She was in the FBI, after all. "I just didn't want you stealing my thunder, boss," he joked.

Callie knocked on the door before opening it. Her daughter was sobbing wildly in her arms. "Mark," she said to the tall man next to her, "you had something to say to Dr Robbins and Mr Karev?"

Sloan pouted like a petulant child and avoided contact with either Arizona or Alex. "I want to apologise for what I said at the meeting earlier," he said, louder than usual to be heard over Sofia's cries.

"That's all right, Agent Sloan," Arizona said, smiling reassuringly. "Hey, what's up with your little girl?" she asked Callie.

"The daycare attendant came to see me and said she's been fussy for the last twenty minutes and they didn't know what to do." Callie ran a soothing hand over her daughter's back, but Sofia wouldn't let up. "Even her daddy's cuddles aren't working. Little Grey," Lexie looked up at the sound of her nickname, "you're the only one I know who can get Sofia to calm down when she's like this. Do you mind just holding her? Mark and I have a meeting."

Lexie stood up, arms outstretched. "I don't mind at all, Callie," she said, taking the baby from her mother's arms. "I love this little goose." Sofia was momentarily silent as she examined the face of her new caregiver. And then she started crying again.

"Oh, baby, mama will be back real soon," Callie cooed gently, to no avail. She looked up at Lexie. "Good luck, and thanks so much." Her and Mark gave Lexie, Arizona and Alex a little wave before shutting the office door and leaving.

Alex groaned. "I didn't know Torres and Sloan had a baby together."

"Long complicated story," said Lexie. She was rocking Sofia back and forth, but she still wouldn't calm down. "Don't even ask me about it. All I know was Callie got pregnant during my second year here."

"Seems like you take care of Sofia quite a bit," said Arizona.

"Yeah, since I'm not in the field as much as Mark or Callie, I volunteer to look after her at home when they're on a stakeout. Her and my niece Zola - Derek and my sister's daughter - have frequent playdates. Zola does daycare at the FBI twice a week and her and Sofia are like, best friends," explained Lexie. "They're pretty much family." Sofia's cries got louder and louder.

Arizona sighed. "Give her here," she said.

"Sorry?"

"Give her here," Arizona repeated. Her arms were outstretched this time. Lexie hesitantly handed Sofia over to the blonde.

"Whoa, Robbins with a baby?" asked Alex, watching as Arizona held Sofia close to her chest and stroked the thick tufts of black hair.

"How hard could it be?" Arizona glared at Alex. She then began whispering gently in Sofia's ear. Eventually, the cries started getting softer and slower, until the little girl - a mini version of Callie, Arizona noted - fell asleep in her arms.

"Okay." Alex looked amazed. "Boss, are you the baby whisperer?"

"Keep your voice down, Karev. She's sleeping." Arizona smiled into Sofia's hair, actually enjoying the baby's warmth against her torso.

* * *

The two academics and the tech analyst continued to work for another two and a half hours when Callie finally returned. She looked puzzled when she saw that Lexie was baby-free. "Where's Sof?" she asked.

Arizona turned her chair around, revealing the lightly snoring baby girl on top of her. "Here."

Callie did a double take. "Wait, you got her to sleep? Usually when Lexie takes her she just calms down and sits quietly on Lexie's lap, but she doesn't nap," she said. She reached forward to take her baby from Arizona's arms. Sofia started stirring, but didn't cry. "Hey baby, mama's back." She giggled at her daughter's sleepy dark eyes. "Let's take you back up to daycare for a snack, Sof. Say bye to Little Grey and Dr Robbins and Mr Karev now."

Sofia waved meekly as Arizona, Alex and Lexie chorused their goodbyes.

Before walking out the door, Callie turned around again. "Arizona," she said, smiling at the blonde. "Thanks."

* * *

Since she had been working hard for the last forty-eight hours, Arizona spent the evening with homemade banana split, reading her favourite blogs on her tablet with primetime television in the background.

The front door opened and Arizona watched Teddy stumble in, a stupid grin on her face. But she knew her friend wasn't drunk, just goofy. "Hey, Phoenix." Teddy addressed Arizona by her Marine nickname. The surgeon plopped down next to her on the couch. "I was at Joe's with some friends from work, and the latest dish is that Erica has split up with Callie."

Arizona gave Teddy a look. "Didn't she tell us that last night?"

"Yeah, but you know how people get fickle about what they want out of their relationships," said Teddy. Her voice lowered. "Erica's leaving town, though. She handed in her resignation to the Chief of Surgery, effective immediately, apparently."

"Really now?" Arizona was trying her best not to look interested.

Teddy nudged Arizona with her elbow. "So, do you want to get in there?"

Arizona swiped down on her tablet, a little more aggressively than she intended to. "Get in where?"

"You know? Sexy Special Agent Callie Torres is now single again!"

"Teddy," Arizona brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, "there are a myriad of reasons why Callie Torres and I can't date: we work together, she has a child and she was engaged, for crying out loud. Did I mention the child bit? Shit, Teddy, this isn't a college relationship or a post-tour hookup. This is like, adult. _Way_ adult."

Teddy raised her hands in defeat. "Okay. No need to get all up in my grill, Robbins."

Arizona swatted her friend. "Stop. You're too white for that." She offered Teddy the TV remote before collecting her empty bowl of ice cream and tucking her tablet underneath one arm. "Hey, you still gonna watch TV?"

"Yeah," said the surgeon, gratefully taking the remote. "Where are you going?"

"Bed," replied Arizona. She put her bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. "I have two lectures and a meeting at the university tomorrow so I can't look like a hot mess."

Teddy let out a sharp laugh. "You're so full of crap, Arizona. You never look like a hot mess and you know it!" she called after her friend.

"Night, Teddy." Arizona entered her bedroom and shut the door. She placed her tablet inside her nightstand drawer and took her laptop out. She fired it up as she arranged the covers around herself in bed.

Opening her web browser, she decided that a simple, pedestrian Google search would suffice. She'd look deeper later. _Callie Torres FBI_, she typed. Arizona breathed slowly as she watched the results fill the page. _Why do I even care?_

* * *

Arizona watched dismally as sheets of Seattle's autumn rain coated the roads. It would be too dangerous for her to ride her bike home. She wondered if Alex was able to give her a ride, before realising that he had to work on his thesis and couldn't be at the FBI that day.

"Arizona." As if on cue, Callie came up behind her, Sofia on her hip. "Are you finished for the day?"

"Yeah," replied the blonde. "I wasn't meant to come in today but Alex told me that Agent Hunt had some bank records he was after but couldn't get himself, then Agent Grey sucked me into conversation..." She was rambling. "Anyway, how are you?"

"I'm good," Callie said quickly. "Uh, so, this rain, huh? I can give you a ride home if you want."

"Are we going in the T-Bird?"

Callie shook her head. "No way. Mark doesn't think it's child friendly enough for Sof, so I own another car. Come on, Arizona. No use arguing with me in weather like this. Go get your bike, we'll meet you in the staff parking lot."

Arizona obliged. When she reunited with mother and daughter in the parking lot, she almost laughed at the silver Kia hatchback that they were standing next to. "You couldn't have brought that to Dalton Heywood Moore?" she asked Callie.

"Mark and I share this one. He has a two-door that he refuses to let Sofia get on. And he was in charge of her that night, so all I had was the T-Bird." Callie shifted timidly from one foot to another. "I'm an FBI agent. I didn't want to drive this _soccer mom_ car to the main offices of one of the top cyber security firms in the world!"

"Ah, the great Special Agent Torres is worried about her street cred." Arizona laughed. "Wait until I tell Sloan that you called this car a 'soccer mom car'."

"You are not telling him anything." Callie hoisted Arizona's bike to the rack attached at the rear of the car and secured it. Then she opened the rear passenger door to put Sofia in her car seat. Arizona sat in the front passenger seat, and Callie got in the car, started it and pulled out of the FBI parking lot.

"So," said Arizona, after a couple of minutes of silence. "Calliope, right?"

If the agent hadn't been behind the wheel, she would have jumped out of her seat. "How the hell did you know that?"

"I looked you up." Arizona shrugged. She was a researcher by trade, so her dig on Callie a few nights ago had been a piece of cake.

Callie raised an eyebrow. "Now, why would you do that?"

"You guys have free access to my file. You know pretty much everything about me. I think it's only natural that I do some searching of my own."

"Please don't tell me you hacked into FBI servers."

Arizona laughed. "Hey, I like consulting for you guys. I'm not about to ruin it. But I did do a teeny bit of hacking," she admitted. "I promise that I didn't go into your bank account or steal any money from you."

"Fair enough. Well, I don't want to hear that name again," said Callie, frowning. "No one dares to call me that around here."

"Calliope," Arizona said again, savouring the name on her tongue. "I think it's beautiful."

The dark-haired woman seemed to relent. "Call me that in front of the others, and I'll whup your ass, Robbins," she said, only half-serious. "I don't care if you've got one leg."

"And I don't care if you've got four inches and about fifteen pounds on me, Calliope. I got taught to hit fast and hard, so I only have to hit once."

"Stop calling me that!" Callie protested, but she was laughing. "You've been working with the FBI for two weeks now, right?" she asked the blonde.

"Yes," said Arizona.

"So why are you still so formal and professional?"

Arizona smiled slyly. "I thought that was what the FBI was all about."

"Oh, stop using my own words against me, Robbins," said Callie. "I notice that with me as an exception, you still call everyone Agent insert-last-name. Even Little Grey, who is by far the most adorable agent this side of the country."

"I try not to get too personal in the workplace," said Arizona. "I think it's a Marine thing."

Callie paused. "I was going to ask you about the leg, but then you just said that, so I'll leave it."

"Thanks," said Arizona. "I might tell you someday, you know. If we become friends when this case blows over."

Callie gave her an understanding smile. "Sure, Arizona. I'd like that." After Callie parked the car in Arizona's driveway, she got out of the car to get the bicycle down from the rack.

Arizona took the bicycle from the taller woman, nodding her thanks. Her left hand was on the left handlebar, while the other was on the top crossbar.

Callie placed her hand on top of the blonde's right hand. "If you ever need a ride in this weather again, just let me know, okay?" she said, then lifted her hand away.

* * *

"Dr Robbins, are you busy?" Lexie Grey's excited voice on the other line asked.

"It's my office hours. I can't leave work right now," said Arizona. She smiled politely at the student seated across from her, whose concerned tirade she interrupted to take the phone call from the FBI tech analyst. "What's the problem? I may be able to help from over here."

"We've ID'd who we presume to be the leader of the Combat Tyrants. Name's Gary Clark."

Arizona sat up. She chose her words carefully despite her excitement. "Get Callie to do a profile that she can show me when I get there. You and Yang can put a folder together at the same time," she told Lexie. "I'll be there in about an hour and a half."

"Besides Callie, everyone has had their hands full tracking down their associates. Which is why you need to come here," said Lexie.

"I can't right now, but you can call Alex and see if he can go there and help out."

"Thanks, I'll try that. See you later, Dr Robbins."

Arizona put her phone away. "Sorry about that," she said to her student. "Where were we?"

* * *

Arizona rode her bike to headquarters as quickly as she could. She ran through the turnstiles and got on the first elevator going up. She burst out on the other end and made a beeline for Lexie's office, almost bowling Agent Bailey over on the way. "I'm so sorry!" the blonde exclaimed, staggering backwards.

"Dr Robbins!" said Bailey. "That's perfectly all right. Hunt just called a meeting. We've ID's four potential suspects."

"Yeah, Agent Grey called me about a Gary Clark."

"He's the only one we're certain about. The other ones are just suspicions for now," said Bailey. "We're in the bigger meeting room, I'm just going to fetch Sloan from making funny faces at his daughter at daycare." She brushed past Arizona.

When she walked into the meeting room, everyone was already there except for Sloan and Bailey. She apologised to them. "I had office hours," she explained briefly, before taking a seat in between Alex and Callie.

Callie leaned over to talk to Arizona quietly. "Lexie told me you wanted a profile on Clark, so I looked through the information she compiled, but I can't find a solid motive," she said.

"What about the others?" Arizona took notice of the whiteboard set up in the meeting room, with four photographs stuck in the middle, and a whole tonne of untidy notes surrounding it.

Callie opened her mouth to answer, but Sloan and Bailey arrived to take their seats and Hunt clapped his hands. "It's been a productive morning, guys," he said. "Let's start with Little Grey and Karev. What have you got?"

Lexie nodded at Karev, who started passing a stack of folders around the room, before she talked about Clark. Hunt then moved to the other agents in the room, who talked about Clark's alleged accomplices. And then he looked at Callie. "Agent Torres, do you have a profile for us?"

"They're all white collar," Callie shrugged, "dorks, I suppose. With an equally dorky hobby that they're taking to the next level. There's nothing on the information I've been given that would give me an idea on what their next move is. I'm stumped, sorry."

Arizona shot the dark-haired woman a sympathetic look. "It's reputation," she declared.

Hunt gave her a look. "Pardon me, Dr Robbins?"

"They're gamers. And hackers. They all started out wanting bragging rights. Now this particular group of people decide that they want to throw LAN parties that everyone will talk about and everyone will want to go to. And this stealing and poking around is how they've decided to fund it," explained Arizona.

"Or they just want to prove that they can bring the richest people in America down to their knees with the aid of a computer and an internet connection," Alex added. "Maybe the money is just a convenient by-product. Hackers are egomaniacs, and they're very difficult to stop."

"We need to prepare for that LAN party, ASAP," said Arizona. "First of all, we need to get gaming laptops."

Bailey just about affectionately stroked the lid of her sleek black HP ProBook, issued to FBI agents. "But why?"

"Your work laptops look too federal and grown up. Gaming is supposed to look fun and wacky," Arizona told her. "And I'll take a guess and say your home computers are either desktops you can't move around or eight hundred dollar jobs you bought at Best Buy to watch YouTube videos on."

Some of the agents shifted guiltily in their seats.

"I have a contact in Samsung's PC department," Cristina announced.

Shepherd looked up from what he was reading. "You mean my wife?" he asked amusedly.

"Yes, Derek, your wife," snapped Cristina. Arizona remembered hearing the story that Cristina and Meredith, Lexie's older sister, were best friends with a bond so tight that Derek Shepherd was the third wheel. She turned back to Arizona. "I can get her to hook us up with some tricked out Series 7 Gamers. What colour do you want?"

"Pink," was Arizona's easy answer. She had a pink Toshiba Qoosmio as a gaming laptop at home. "Make them all pink, so we look like a real team." Lexie was smiling in agreement, Cristina looked vaguely irritated and Bailey and Callie started protesting at the choice of colour. "Fine, let's all choose our own colours," Arizona hastily corrected.

Alex jumped to his mentor's rescue. "I can get some guys at the Hackerbot Labs to design some cool clan decals you can put on for uniformity," he suggested.

"That would be cool, Alex." Arizona gave him a grateful look.

"Gimme your colours." Cristina pulled her phone out of her pocket. "I'll send Meredith a message now."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **I've tossed up the possible lengths of this fanfic, and it's possible that it's just going to be 8-10 chapters, but fear not, all arcs will be fully resolved. University is back on for me so even if I wanted to write, my good conscience tells me not to. Your feedback is very much appreciated, though, and I look forward to uploading a new chapter. I'm also sort of injured at the moment with some RSI in my right wrist, so the chapters I'm working on right now are proceeding slower than usual since I have to take tonnes of break or skip writing altogether. With that and uni, updates may become less frequent and I apologise for this. There will be updates as usual on the Tumblr **wip-alterocentrist**, so follow me there to keep up with the teasers.

**Next chapter: **The Combat Tyrants take a crack at the FBI. Arizona offers some unsolicited advice, and the rewards are ever so sweet. Or so we think.

* * *

Teddy tailed Arizona worriedly around their home as the shorter blonde poured popcorn and a bag of potato chips into two separate bowls. "Are you sure you're all right to host this on your own?" she asked. "I won't stay in the den, but I'll be around if you need anyone to pour drinks or something."

Arizona sighed. "Teddy, I'll be fine. There are going to be four very physically fit people here in twenty minutes, and they're also seem like very polite people so I don't think they'll mind giving me a hand if they see me struggling - which I won't be," she said. She neatly arranged some glasses on a tray, then looked back up at her friend. "Now, you said your co-workers are having a get together tonight, so go. Have fun. Get sloshed. Meet a guy. Bonk at his place."

"Arizona!" Teddy's nose was scrunched up as she followed Arizona down the short set of steps to the den. "I'm too old to be doing that."

The academic shot her a look over her shoulder. "You're also too old to be having sex with trauma counsellors in on-call rooms, but we won't dig deeper into that," she said slyly, putting a hand on her hip. "Are you going to skedaddle or do I have to poke my plastic leg at you?"

"Okay, okay, I'm skedaddling!" Teddy exclaimed exasperatedly before walking off to the main level to grab her purse and car keys. "I'm skedaddling! I better not come home to a bunch of drunk FBI agents, or worse, you and Sexy Special Agent Callie having sex on the couch I just got reupholstered."

"That was a joint flatmate decision!" Arizona called out.

"Yes, but _this_ flatmate financed it!" Teddy shot back. A rush of air blew in as she opened the front door. "I'm leaving. Have fun with the feds! Use a dental dam!" Teddy locked the door behind her, and Arizona was alone again.

"Okay." She inhaled deeply. "Confectionery." Muttering nonsensically to herself, she pulled packs of M&Ms, Skittles and marshmallows out of a paper grocery bag, and poured them into smaller bowls. Tonight was the first training LAN party their undercover clan was having, and since it was going to be a crash course, Arizona decided to host, while Lexie - the only other agent that had gone to these parties - volunteered to treat the group with pizzas.

A glance at the clock told her that it was ten minutes before the agents were even due to arrive. Arizona absentmindedly aligned the chairs that were arranged around the large den table, which, she had to admit, she bought years ago with the intention of holding LAN parties. Marine background and PhD aside, she was a total geek.

The doorbell rang.

Someone's early, Arizona thought, before remembering that her guests tonight all went through a strict and rigorous training programme, not unlike her training in the Marine Corps, which valued punctuality. Or hyper-punctuality. Upon opening the door, Arizona came face to face with Callie, who was holding a six-pack of what looked like pricey craft beer. Her eyes ran over the dark-haired woman's clothing - that leather jacket again, with a simple black top and blue jeans this time. This woman sure loves her scoop necks. Not that she had any issues with that.

"Hey Arizona! I know I'm early but I had to get out of there while Sofia was still engaged in smashing her squash mash all over her face so she wouldn't notice that I had left," Callie said cheerfully. "I brought beer!" She curiously looked at the six-pack in her hand. "I don't actually know what it is. I stole it from Mark."

"Hi," squeaked Arizona. _Dammit, Robbins!_

Callie cocked her head to the side adorably. "Is everything all right? I came too early, didn't I?"

The shorter woman recovered. "No, it's not that," she said. "It's just quite strange seeing you out your suit again, that's all. Nice strange," she clarified. "Uh, come in." She gestured towards the living room, overly aware that she was inviting Callie Torres into her home, her own personal space, and they were merely contractual colleagues. _This was such a terrible idea_. _You can't date her anyway_, the little voice in Arizona's head mocked. _You're just going to be a rebound to her._

Closing the door, Arizona turned around to see that Callie had been drawn to the mantelpiece, and that she had began to examine the framed photographs on it. Arizona walked over to her. "That's me and Teddy with my brother Tim, when we made a day trip to assist some of the UN Peacekeepers stationed in Peshawar," she explained, pointing at the photo Callie was looking at. The background of the photo was the stone buildings by the Peshawar border, and the military jeeps. "A riot had broken out between disgruntled civilians and the journalists that were camped out there, so a group of us were sent to help clean up. The journey took longer than expected because we were avoiding mines, but we got there."

"He's an older brother, right?" asked Callie.

"The one and only." Arizona nodded sadly. "I think I had just been in Afghanistan for three weeks when this happened. Tim and Teddy thought it would be fun to throw me in the deep end." She snorted. "We were all best friends over there."

"You came back without him," Callie said warily. "Killed in combat?"

Because Timothy didn't die fighting a battle, there was no explanation of his death on Arizona's file. But before Arizona could correct the FBI agent, the doorbell rang again. "That must be the others," she said. "Den's that way, make yourself comfortable and I'll be there in a jiffy." She took a deep breath as she went to get the door.

The doorbell rang again. "Dr Robbins!" Cristina's voice was clear even through the door. "I've got Little Grey and five very heavy laptops here. Open up, I can't take this much responsibility any longer!"

Arizona's eyes met Callie's, and they burst into laughter together.

* * *

With Lexie's help, Arizona set up the shiny new Samsung Series 7 Gamer laptops onto the same LAN. Cristina had the computers in her possession for three days already, and she had taken the liberty of installing Black Ops on it, commenting that it was "relaxing" for beginners, and that they'd work their way up.

Twenty minutes into their first game, and Cristina and Callie had cracked into the beer first. Cristina, despite insisting that she was only going to be second-in-command to Arizona, was the clear captain of the group, instructing the newbies, Callie and Bailey, how to navigate through the map and eliminate insurgents, while directing Arizona and Lexie towards more complicated maneuvers. An hour later, the atmosphere had changed from awkwardly pedagogical to a college party, with the women screaming at their screens as they mashed keys with one hand and stuffed their faces with candy using the other.

They took a break for a stretch and glasses of water. Lexie explored the den, which had an assortment of exercise equipment and an old TV with an aerial, which Arizona and Teddy used to watch the local news station on when they worked out in the mornings. "This is a cool setup," she told Arizona.

"Thanks," said Arizona. "It's a total bachelorette pad. Except we hardly have any people over."

"It's a great place for a LAN party," said Cristina. "Well, any place that stocks extra butter butter popcorn is great to me. Imagine trying to live with the Shepherds. They're total health nuts!"

Lexie, who lives in the detached apartment next to the Shepherd household, pouted. "Meredith and Derek are not that bad!"

"Oh yes, they are," said Cristina.

"Hey, I have an idea," said Arizona. "You said that your sister studied computers, right?" Lexie nodded. "If she knows how to play Call of Duty, you should invite her over to one of our training LANs. We can play in teams of three. It's just a suggestion, of course, she may be real busy, so it's cool if she can't do it."

Lexie and Cristina looked at each other. "Oh, hell yeah, Mer would be up for that!" Cristina exclaimed. "Although, Dr Robbins, you need to have more beer than what we had. Mer and I usually clean out a six-pack when we have game night."

"Duly noted, Agent Yang." Arizona ignored Lexie's slightly embarrassed expression.

Callie returned from the bathroom and Bailey returned from downing three tall glasses of water in the kitchen - the yelling had made her throat scratchy. "What's Dr Robbins duly noting?" the shorter of the two women demanded.

"Buying beer for Cristina and my sister when she comes to LAN with us," replied Lexie.

Callie and Bailey both groaned. "You and Big Grey are both lightweights!" said Callie.

"Take it from us, Dr Robbins," said Bailey. "Don't listen to Yang. Beer is a bad idea for these two."

While Cristina scowled at them, Callie bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. "Come on team, let's play," she insisted. "This is actually pretty awesome. I always thought it was nerdy but it's cool."

"I'm with Torres," said Bailey. "Let's play, let's play, let's play!" She flapped her arms up and down enthusiastically.

"All right," said Arizona. They all took their places at the table. As Cristina set up another game on her computer and added their players onto it, Arizona caught Callie looking at her, the woman's plump lips curved into a small, expectant smile. Arizona realised that she liked being with these people. Not just in a professional capacity. They weren't the high strung, self-righteous pricks she thought they would be. "Uh, how about you guys start calling me Arizona? You're not my students or anything so I don't see an issue with it," she suggested. Her eyes, which were scanning the group. landed on Callie's once more. And she returned her smile.

The LAN party cleared out at 2am, when Bailey began grumbling that her husband was going to get irritated at her for being home so late. Arizona realised that she had a 9am department meeting the next morning, and so she took her jeans off, unfastened her leg, decided to go to bed without even cleaning anything up in the den.

* * *

Arizona's alarm blared. Groggy, she sniffed beer and garlic cheese on her clothes. She glanced at her alarm clock and almost screamed out in shock when she saw the time. It was already 8.15. The university was thirty minutes away on a bicycle. She leapt up, attached her prosthetic before she forgot, grabbed some underwear from her drawer, and limped hurriedly to the bathroom.

"Whoa, Arizona." Teddy was leaning on the kitchen counter sipping a glass of water. "Long night?" she asked her friend.

"I could say the same about you," said Arizona, noting that Teddy was still in the same outfit from last night, only now, it was extra rumpled. "But I won't, because I have a staff meeting that I'm going to be late for. Good on you for getting laid, though." She continued walking to the bathroom.

"I did not get laid!" Teddy denied.

Arizona stopped to give her friend a look. "Don't say anything else, Teds. Otherwise you're just lying, and that's no good," she said amusedly. "If you're having an active sex life, then good for you."

The last words Arizona heard before she shut the bathroom door were, "You sound just like my mother, you disgusting little shit!" She couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

When Arizona finished showering, Teddy was putting away the beer bottles that had been scattered around the house the night before. "You didn't have to do that," said Arizona. She cinched her towel tighter around her chest. "I would have cleaned it up."

"Yes, but I have the day off today and I don't want to spend it in an untidy house," Teddy told her. She exhaled loudly. "God, your FBI agent friends are slobs. I would think Karev was the one who threw the geek party, not you."

"Yeah, but Alex's friends wouldn't have been able to afford that craft beer." Before she entered her bedroom, she teased the taller blonde, "You can tell me about your _conquest_ when I get back tonight. I'm gonna be late."

"I didn't sleep with anyone last night!" Teddy insisted.

Arizona could have sworn she saw her friend stomp her foot. "You're lying again," she reminded.

Teddy folded her arms. "I was going to offer you a ride to work, but you're unbearable right now so I'm withdrawing that offer. Have fun biking."

"I wasn't going to take you up on that offer anyway, so thanks, I will."

* * *

"Dr Robbins, so nice of you to join us," the department chair said, as the blonde slid into a seat in the meeting room at the department building. Arizona did not miss the condescension in his voice. She was only three minutes late, but she knew that the chair didn't like her much in the first place.

The chair did a quick roll call, then started the meeting by grilling the graduate student advisers, Arizona being one of them. "Dr Robbins, I've heard that you have asked your TA and PhD candidate, Alex Karev, to assist you on your consulting with the FBI?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," said Arizona.

"Is Mr Karev aware of the commitment you have signed him up for?"

Arizona swallowed. "Mr Karev's arrangement consulting with the FBI is between him and FBI," she explained. "I didn't sign him up for anything. He came onboard of his own accord."

The department chair moved forward. "Yes, but what if you coerced him?"

* * *

Arizona stormed into the grad student lounge, almost running right into one of Alex's friends in the process. Not even bothering to apologise, she demanded, "Where's Alex?"

"Karev?" He pointed to the far corner of the lounge, where Alex was in a hoodie and jeans, his massive headphones clamped over his head as he typed furiously. "He's over there, but he's locked in."

Alex noticed that Arizona was marching towards him, but he had barely removed his headphones when Arizona's question cut the silence, "Did you tell the department chair that I forced you to consult for the FBI against your will?"

"What?" Alex's eyebrows furrowed. "Why would he say that?"

"At the staff meeting he implied that I coerced you into doing work for the feds."

"Arizona." Alex looked at her sincerely. "I didn't say anything to the chair."

The blonde didn't soften. "How about the other staff members? Or the other students?"

"Look, we set rules about being discreet with consulting with the FBI, and I'm following them because I actually like working there and the people we work with would probably kick my ass if I had said anything that I shouldn't be saying. So I watch myself. Plus, I don't like talking about my life much with these dorks anyway," said Alex. "But," he hesitated, "I probably did mention something to Stark the other day."

Arizona's eyes almost bulged out of her head. Stark was already a tenured associate professor, but he remained to be her greatest academic rival in the department. He might have been three years Arizona's senior and had a superior amount of peer-reviewed publications, but he lacked her ability to attract the best PhD candidates and TAs. She mentally counted to three, before speaking again. "What did you say to him? Why were you even talking to him?"

"He caught me in the library and wanted to have a chat on what I was working on," said Alex. "Said something about you bragging about me."

"I won't deny that I gloated about you to Stark," Arizona put a hand on her hip, "because you're freaking brilliant, but what else did you say?"

Alex looked guilty. "He invited me for drinks but I refused and said my workload is a bit heavier this time around because I was helping you consult on something," he said. "I didn't say what it was, though. I guess he just managed to squirrel it out of another professor."

Arizona nodded. It wasn't a secret amongst the teaching staff that Arizona was doing work with the FBI, so Alex's theory checked out. "You'll tell me, though," she said. "If you've had enough of the feds. Right?"

"Yeah, I will. Promise."

"All right." Arizona nodded, relieved, but still angry. She brushed off some imaginary dust on her pants and headed back to the lounge door.

"Robbins, wait," Alex called. The blonde paused mid-step and turned to look at him. "If you're going to face off with Stark, don't beat him up too badly."

Arizona couldn't make any promises.

* * *

"Stark!" Arizona entered Dr Robert Stark's office without warning, her hair frazzled from the brisk walk there from the grad student lounge, her blue eyes flashing indignantly. She slammed the door shut, locked it for good measure. "I wanted to ask you a question: what the hell are you playing at?"

The other academic smiled innocently. "Arizona," he said. "Nice to see you in my office."

Arizona just about leapt across Stark's desk to scratch his beady eyes out. "Don't_ Arizona_ me!"

"Seriously though, what brings you here? I thought you hated me. You made no secret of that."

"I do hate you," said Arizona. "But you know what I hate more? When someone decides to smear my name to the_ fucking_ department chair, the_ fucking_ semester that I am up for tenureship."

Stark calmly leaned back in his chair. "I know your workload has been crazy," he said.

"You know squat about my workload," Arizona hissed. "What's your issue?"

"I was - I am - simply concerned that the department is giving tenure to a professor who isn't up for the job," said Stark. "You know that we're focusing on being one of the best computer science departments in the country-"

"And we will be once they have me on tenureship."

Stark looked her straight in the eye. "I've looked into it, you know. You've cancelled more lectures since you've started consulting with the FBI than you've had in your four years here," he told her. "The department has every right to refuse tenureship to someone too busy playing detective than doing research and publishing papers. And there's the question of Alex Karev."

Arizona scowled. "What about him?"

"He's, for a lack of a better word, the best PhD candidate that we have," said Stark. "Everyone knows that. He's the one to watch, and you said it yourself. So what are you distracting him for? If you're going to keep doing that, he doesn't need a thesis supervisor like you."

"Alex is an adult who agreed to consulting for the FBI _with_ the FBI agents on the case, not with me," Arizona told him coldly. "And if you're making me look bad in front of the department chair and the other professors, then I know it's because you're just jealous since none of your candidates have a smidgen of Alex's brilliance." She stepped forward, braced herself on Stark's table with her hands, and leaned in close to him. "_Robert_," she said saccharinely, "if Alex tells me that you're trying to ask him out on your boys' drinks again, I will _fuck_ you up." And with that, she walked out of Stark's office, and headed to her own to pick up the problem sheets that she intended to grade that evening.

Okay, maybe her workload was a little crazy. Once she got into her office, she sent Alex a message to tell him not to go to the FBI after his classes, and to take a night off. And then she texted Lexie to say she wasn't coming in. Finally, she texted Teddy that she was going to pick dinner up for the two of them.

Teddy's reply came soon after: _What, no FBI tonight?_

_Long story_, Arizona typed._ I'll tell you later over dinner._

* * *

Arizona entered her house and saw that Teddy had already set the table for them. "Romantic," she said to the trauma surgeon, who was bent over the cutlery drawers as she searched for something. "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for candles," replied Teddy. She looked up sheepishly. "Oh, that doesn't add to this whole seemingly platonic cohabitation, does it?"

Arizona laughed. "No, it really doesn't, but I saw this day coming," she joked. She pulled a paper bag out of her backpack. "I got us Thai food from our favorite place." She opened the plastic containers one by one and arranged them on the table.

Teddy clapped her hands gleefully. "Arizona, you must really love me!" she gushed in jest.

"I know their green curry is your favourite," said Arizona. She paused to scoop some pad thai on her plate. "I almost murdered Robert Stark today."

"Excuse me?" Teddy looked confused. "Robert Stark, as in that dumpy dude that happens to be the only one in the computer science department that full on hates you?"

"Yup, that Stark. He was accusing me of not devoting as much time to my tenureship application and to Alex as much as I should be. I lost my temper, okay?" Arizona fumbled. "And maybe he's right. I need to dial back my devotion to the FBI case and get back into focusing on my tenureship portfolio. Juggling both is kinda stressing me out. Anyway, that's why I came home early tonight. To destress. Tell me about last night." She put a forkful of noodles and tofu in her mouth.

"Erica Hahn called me last night when I was at Joe's," Teddy blurted out. "She asked to see me."

Arizona's body jerked up in surprise. "Like, for a booty call?" she asked through a mouthful of food. "Since when are you into girls? You know she's just using you for a rebound, right?"

"No, you perv!" Teddy exclaimed. "She needed another set of hands to put her stuff in storage."

"Oh, she's already found another town to move to? But what about Callie?"

Teddy narrowed her eyes. "Will you please swallow your food before saying another word?" she demanded. "And what about Callie? She and Erica have broken up. Erica doesn't owe her anything anymore."

With her mouth free of food this time, Arizona muttered, "Since when have you and Erica been bosom buds?"

"She was Chief Resident when I first came to work at the hospital. I was always hoping that she'd go into trauma, but cardio was more her thing, ultimately - I don't blame her. We trust each other. Kind of," replied Teddy. Wait," she pointed at Arizona. "Callie isn't to know about this. That's why Erica called me, because I'm the only attending that liked her enough not to rat her out to Callie. So you better not tell her that Erica's left already, because she will find out and kill me."

"She's moving to God knows where and her_ heartbroken_ ex-fiancée doesn't even get to know about it? Callie will be shattered." Arizona nibbled on a piece of tofu she had speared with her fork. "What a horrible, horrible lesbian."

"Maybe Callie doesn't deserve someone like that anyway," said Teddy.

"Nope," said Arizona. "She definitely deserves better."

* * *

The department chair for computer science, Professor Kenley, was waiting in the hallway outside Arizona's office the next morning. "Oh great," she muttered under her breath.

Professor Kenley raised a suspicious eyebrow. "I didn't catch that, Dr Robbins?"

Shaking her head, Arizona forced herself to give the department chair a sunny smile. "Good morning, Professor Kenley," she said brightly. "How are you today?"

The older man made a small gesture at Arizona's office door. "Would you terribly mind if we had a chat in your office?"

"No, not at all," said Arizona. She hesitantly reached for the keys in her purse to unlock the door. She entered her office, Professor Kenley on her heels, and sat behind her desk. "What's up?"

Kenley closed the door before sitting down across from Arizona. "Robert Stark and I had a word."

_Say hello to orange jumpsuits, Robbins. Stark probably just complained that you assaulted him_, the blonde thought, horrified. "Oh, what about?" she asked, fighting to keep her voice casual.

"Well," Kenley licked his lips, "Robert is concerned-"

"_Bull_-," Arizona cut Kenley off but caught herself at the last second, "horse manure that Stark is concerned about me."

"Dr Robbins, let me finish," Kenley said calmly. "Robert is concerned that you may be suffering from burnout from the pressure to get your tenureship portfolio together. He recommended that we push your presentation at the end of next semester to give you more time to finish - and I agreed with him."

"I'm coping fine with the pressure, Professor Kenley."

"You say that now but Robert and I were in your place once and we can judge burnout with the gift of hindsight. Arizona," he said softly, leaning forward, "please consider it carefully. If we push the presentation back to May, it won't affect your career at all. Not even a little bit."

Arizona slumped in her seat. "I have a timeline," she mumbled.

"I'm sorry?"

"I have a timeline," she repeated, louder this time. "I have a timeline for how my life would work out after I got my leg sorted out. Go back to college, become an academic. I aim to get my tenureship by the end of this semester."

"You're not the only one who woke up in their mid-twenties mapping out the life they want to lead, you know. But shit happens, for better or for worse." Kenley smiled at Arizona so genuinely, he reminded her of her own father in that moment. "Look, Dr Robbins," he started to get up. "Just think about it, please? The last thing I want is for one of our academics to take a sabbatical because they've worked a little too hard when they didn't need to." With an awkward wave, he left the room.

Arizona decided that after her office hours this afternoon, she'd head straight to the FBI to renegotiate the hours she is meant to consult for them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **I know the last chapter was a bit of a wash in terms of action-wise and Calzona-wise, but I'm ramping both aspects up as we head into the last 4-5 chapters of this story. Thanks again for all your feedback! Oh, and I have another Calzona story in the works, so once this finishes, it won't be long until I start publishing again. Excerpts for future chapters will be uploaded on **wip-alterocentrist **on Tumblr.

**Next week: **Arizona and Callie do the awkward dance around each other - but who will front up first? Meanwhile, the task force deals with yet another attack from the Combat Tyrants in a bizarre situation.

* * *

A couple of weeks had passed before Arizona had worked up the courage - with a substantial amount of nagging from Teddy - to talk to Agent Webber about her contract. She always had issues with authority figures, and Agent Webber was no different. With her best purposeful stride, her eyes were set on the Chief's office door, until she saw a flash of black hair exit the break room. It was Callie, hair framing her face by way of concealment, hastily excusing herself from the bullpen. Arizona stopped in her tracks only to change direction to follow the other woman.

Arizona waited until Callie got into an elevator before she stood in front of the doors, watching the red numbers on the panel indicate where the carriage was travelling. "The fourth floor," she whispered softly to herself. An empty elevator opened. She hopped on and pressed the 4 button. When the carriage came to a stop, Arizona slowly walked out to the distant sound of children laughing. _The daycare floor,_ she realised.

She almost made an attempt to hide as Callie came out of the daycare doors, a babbling Sofia on her hip, but she remembered that she was meant to be a friend to the FBI agent. "Calliope," she called cheerfully as she approached them.

Callie looked around. She appeared slightly panicked. "Arizona, I told you not to use that name."

"Sorry," Arizona said sheepishly. "It just came out." She reached out and touched one of Sofia's chubby fingers. "Hey, big girl."

"Say hi to Dr Robbins, baby," Callie urged her daughter. She chuckled when Sofia seemed rather alarmed at the word "doctor". "Not that kind of doctor, Sof, don't worry."

The blonde couldn't help giggling too. "How about she just knows me as Arizona?" She made a silly face at Sofia and watched the little girl's face break into a huge smile.

"Hi!" Sofia exclaimed.

"Well, hello there!" said Arizona, beaming in full force. "How you doing?"

Sofia shyly burrowed into Callie's neck. "Naw," cooed Callie. She turned to Arizona. "You got a little tyke in daycare too or what?" she joked.

Arizona was momentarily confused. "No, I followed you up because I saw you leaving the break room looking a little upset," she said. "So, are you okay?"

"I called the hospital today. Asking for Erica, because she hadn't picked up her cell or her landline's been disconnected." Callie bit her lip. "The Chief of Surgery herself got on the phone with me. She said that Erica handed in her notice weeks ago, and that as far as she knew, she left town."

_I know_, Arizona wanted to say. Instead, she asked: "Did she say where?"

Callie shook her head. "Her old boss said that Erica had asked for a reference and she gave it to her, but she didn't know where it was going to be used. She told me she'd call some of her friends in other hospitals around the country to see if she got work in any of them. Wait, Teddy and Erica worked together. Did Teddy say anything to you about it?"

"No, she didn't," Arizona lied. She felt guilty almost immediately. "Why would she?" she added, but that didn't help how rotten she was now feeling.

The brown eyes across from her welled up with tears. "She totally blindsided me, Arizona. I knew we were over but I didn't know that she _hated_ me that much to run away from me." She shifted Sofia so that the little girl would have a difficult time realising that her mom is upset. "I don't even know what to do anymore."

"You don't need anyone like that in your life, Callie," Arizona told her. "You don't need anyone that won't let you in, or anyone that would lie to you." _By that same token, you don't need me._

The two women were standing in silence when they heard the elevator ping, and there were rapid footsteps approaching them in the corridor. "Callie!" a voice called out. "Dr Robbins!" A wide-eyed Lexie appeared. "Owen and Derek want everyone in the bullpen. Now."

"Is Alex here?" asked Arizona.

"I called him," replied Lexie. "He said he has an hour left of his shift," Arizona remembered that Alex worked at the university library, "but he'd be on his way as soon as he could."

"What's going on?" asked Callie. She had hastily wiped the tears in her eyes with her sleeve.

"We think the perps know that we're onto them," said Lexie. "Cristina and Derek found something and called all hands on deck. They'll explain when we get there."

Callie looked at Arizona. "You go ahead," she told the blonde. "I'll bring Sofia back to daycare and explain to her why mama can't have lunch with her. Say bye, Sof."

Sofia waved enthusiastically at Lexie, then looked at Arizona and giggled bashfully.

"Let's go," Lexie said to Arizona.

Arizona watched as Callie and Sofia headed for the daycare doors. "Yeah, let's." She followed Lexie to the next elevator heading for the bullpen.

* * *

The bullpen was buzzing with wild activity - shouting, running around - when the two agents and Arizona came in. "Callie, you need to talk with Bailey and Owen in the meeting room. Dr Robbins, they want you and me in the control room," Lexie told the other two. She was referring to the room where they housed the office's IT servers. When they entered that room, among the screens was a grim-faced Cristina Yang.

"How are we doing?" asked Lexie.

"Second firewall is down," Cristina told her loudly over the whirr of computers. "The IT people are trying to save it while I run a trace."

Lexie must have seen the look of bewilderment on Arizona's face. "You guessed it," she said. "The Combat Tyrants are breaking into FBI's northwestern servers. They're using a very, very naughty worm."

"Why just the northwest? That's just the Portland office and us, right?" Arizona asked.

Cristina answered this question. "From the northwestern servers they can access the entire West Coast database. And with a little bit of work they can probably unlock the nationwide database." She exhaled slowly. "I think that's what they're trying to do."

Arizona considered the information. "How's your trace working out for you?"

"Trying to write a script that would make it undetectable but would hopefully give us a location. I mean, our hunch is that they all live on the West Coast, and certainly Gary Clark does, but we need to confirm and we need to be more specific on where to find them," replied Cristina. "I'm still working out the kinks in my code before I send it out."

"Let me see," Arizona leaned over Cristina's shoulder. "Alex is more adventurous with hybrid languages than I am but I think I'll be able to help you work out an effective script." She ran her finger lightly above the code on the screen as she read it, and chewed on the inside of her cheek, deep in thought.

"Our last firewall seventy-percent damaged!" one of the IT guys yelled from the corner of the room. "This worm is an aggressive one, Agent Shepherd."

"Fuck!" Derek, who was standing up the front, his normally perfectly sculpted hair tousled in frustration, yelled back: "Patch as much of it up as you can." He turned to another person hunched over a computer. "Write something - anything! - that could slow down their attack down. It's our last line of defence. Go!"

"Derek, you need me to do anything?" asked Lexie.

"Come over here and help him write this code," said Derek.

Meanwhile, Cristina and Arizona were happy with the trace, so they ran it. "Trace has been launched!" Cristina announced. She leaned back in her chair and turned to Arizona. "And now we wait."

A couple of minutes later, the same IT guy shouted again: "Agent Shepherd, the third firewall has now fully been restored and the second firewall is twenty percent restored!"

Derek frowned in shock. "What do you mean?"

"He's right, Derek," said Lexie, her eyes absorbed on the code running rapidly across the screen. "The firewalls are going back up."

_TRACE ABORTED_ flashed on Cristina's screen. "Shit!" she said. She banged some keys on her keyboard. "What the hell is happening?"

"The trace is only going to work so long as the firewalls are down," Arizona realised.

Cristina swore exasperatedly. "Son of a bitch," she growled. "What if they detected it?"

"I really wouldn't put it past them if they've noticed our counterattacks. They are competent enough for that," said Arizona. "But at the same time, we may have been the target of a harmless crime they can brag about. They got through two of our firewalls and almost tore down a third before they couldn't stop us fighting back."

"You think they're making us _forum fodder_?" Cristina raised an eyebrow.

Arizona shrugged. "I'm just hazarding a guess. It's a strong possibility though."

"Those _fucking_ geeks," Cristina muttered angrily.

* * *

The task force reconvened in the meeting room once it was confirmed that there were no further threats to the servers' firewalls. Webber made the effort to be present as well, and ordered everyone Chinese takeout as an early dinner, taken care of by the FBI credit card. Alex arrived and sat next to Arizona. "Lexie sounded like she was panicking," he told his mentor. "I came here as soon as I could. Fill me in, Robbins."

Arizona obliged. She explained while Alex sat, his reactions mostly silent. Arizona knew that he would ask many questions after she had finished speaking. But before Alex even opened his mouth, Owen stood up at the front of the room. "A quick recap, team," he began. "At around three o'clock in the afternoon, the FBI northwestern servers were attacked by a worm that came from the Combat Tyrants."

"I just realised something," Arizona spoke up. "How did you know that it was the Combat Tyrants? Wouldn't any group of hackers be aiming to attack the FBI any day?"

Owen turned to Derek to wait for an answer. The dark-haired man cleared his throat. "The FBI's security filter looks through all the agents' email before each agent gets it in their inbox. There was an email that came through with an attachment. Upon the opening of this attachment, the worm was released and started attacking the filter, before it started on the firewalls."

"So it knew what it was out to destroy," remarked Alex.

"Agent Shepherd, that still doesn't answer my question." Arizona scowled at him.

"My apologies, Dr Robbins. The attachment in the email was the Combat Tyrant's logo. It's popped up a few times in this investigation so we immediately recognised it as soon as we got the IT guys to show us," replied Derek.

"Thank you."

"Anyway, as Mr Karev said," Owen was speaking again, "the worm knew what it was looking for. It managed to take down two of our firewalls and had made good headway on the last firewall. Yang and Dr Robbins sent a trace out, but suddenly the firewalls started restoring one by one and the trace led nowhere. So, what are our next steps?"

"We have an address for Gary Clark," said Mark. "We should interrogate him."

"I'm afraid that's not a good idea, Sloan," said Derek. "I know we want to drill him but we're planning a sting. And on paper, Gary Clark is the most boring guy alive. He's a middle-aged man with a white collar job and a geeky hobby. We need a confession from him, not just evidence."

Mark looked at the Chief. "I have to agree with Shepherd," Webber said. "Sorry, Mark."

"God, I can't believe that a bunch of computer geeks are bringing us to our knees," sighed Callie. "I know it technically is organised crime, but investigating drug rings or mafia activity isn't this sedentary."

Cristina snorted. "Crime - or at least the FBI definition of crime - isn't usually this sedentary either, Callie," she told the profiler.

"So do we just wait it out until the LAN party?" asked Callie.

"No choice, Torres," Bailey said, shrugging. "We have to keep close tabs on Clark and the other suspects and see if we get any leads. In the meantime, we have to keep planning the sting."

* * *

The meeting was adjourned under two hours later. Arizona and Alex walked out of the room together. Their heads were loaded with information, and despite being academics, both of them appeared exhausted. "Want a ride home, Robbins?" asked Alex. "We could stop for a drink on the way to your place. God knows I need one."

"No, it's fine," said Arizona. "I just got a new bike light and I want to try it out tonight. Besides, it's not too dark yet. I'll manage. Thanks for the offer."

"How about that drink, though? I'll race you to Joe's?" Alex suggested wryly.

Arizona hit him lightly on the arm. "I need a drink too. A nice big strong drink." She sighed wistfully. "But since I'm a grown-up, I keep my liquor at home. Trust me, it's a lot cheaper."

"Old married couples do that, Robbins," said Alex. He teasingly nudged Arizona's ribs with his elbow. "You're young, you're single, you have a good job. Surely you can afford a couple of beers at Joe's."

Arizona pouted. "I'm married to Teddy. We have wine together."

"Oh come on, Robbins," whined Alex. "I need someone to buy me a beer."

The blonde glared at him. "Oh, that's what you wanted me for, huh?"

"Did someone say they wanted a drink?" Mark Sloan's voice sang out across the bullpen. "Robbins? Karev?"

_No way I'm going for a drink with Callie's baby daddy_. Arizona shook her head. "Not me. I'm headed home. Things to do, essays to read..." she winked at Alex. "You can take Alex out, though. He's trying to get a grown-up to buy him a beer."

Mark squinted at Alex. "You over twenty-one, kiddo?" he asked. He watched Alex nod. "Then buy your own fucking beer," he said, before erupting in a deep, rolling laugh. "We'll go for a drink, though, Karev. First round's on me, but you gotta pay for the rest."

Arizona couldn't resist laughing with Mark. "Sloan's onto it," she told Alex. She patted his shoulder. "I'm off. I'll see you tomorrow." She eyed Mark. "If he gets you back okay." She walked to the bullpen door, then stopped as she remembered something._ I was meant to renegotiate my contract today._

"You okay there, Robbins?" Alex asked from behind her.

Arizona turned to give him a reassuring smile. "Yeah, Alex. I'm good," she said. "See you."

* * *

She was exiting the building through the lobby when she heard someone call her name. Turning around, Arizona found Callie, pushing a stroller with an asleep Sofia inside it. Arizona had tried to dial back her attraction for the FBI agent, especially one who had just come out of a relationship and is a mother to a baby, but at times like these, she couldn't help herself. "Hey," she breathed..

"Hey," said Callie. She smiled timidly. "Do you want a ride home?"

Arizona made a point of looking out the building. "The weather's fine," she said. "I can manage."

"All right then. But there's no chance that I'll repeat my offer." Callie laughed nervously. "You know what you said earlier? About me not deserving people like Erica in my life?"

"Yeah..." The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"I just wanted to say that you're right," admitted Callie. "I think I'm still hung up over Erica, but I need to remember that I have Sofia, and Sofia has a great mom and dad and a great group of people to be growing up around. People who are my very best friends in the world. I hope that thinking of that will make moving on a little bit easier."

Arizona beamed at Callie. _I'm turning the smile on full force too often around her, but fuck it._ "That's great, Callie!" she said. "But why are you telling me this?"

Callie wrung her hands. "I know I'm rambling but I feel it's necessary to verbalise what's going on in my head, and since you're the one who gave the unsolicited advice, I feel that it's right to verbalise to you," she quickly explained. "Fuck," she covered her mouth, wide-eyed at saying the word in close proximity to her daughter, "I'm rambling again, aren't I?"

"Just a little bit." Arizona indicated with her thumb and forefinger. "I'm sorry for the unsolicited advice, though. I like to fix things... people. I like to fix people." _God, now I'm rambling, too._

"I didn't realise I was broken."

The academic's eyes shifted away from Callie's. "Sorry."

"Arizona." The dark-haired woman's voice called for Arizona to resume eye contact with her. "I was just kidding," she reassured her. "Thank you for the advice. Honestly. I needed it. I get a little freaked out over the state of my own life sometimes."

"I think we all do," Arizona told her.

"Some more than others." Callie chuckled. "Anyway, I should probably get home."

"Yeah, me too," said Arizona. "I'm not going in tomorrow unless I absolutely have to, by the way. I've got to get some writing done. I've been putting it off for a while. Working for the FBI is a good procrastination method."

"All right," Callie said amusedly. "I'll see you when I see you?"

"Maybe you can fake a lead to lure me back here tomorrow, if you'll miss me that much," joked Arizona.

The taller woman winked. "I might just do that."

"Don't forget our LAN party at my place though," Arizona reminded her. This was going to be their fourth LAN and Meredith, Lexie's sister, had been joining them and happened to be an excellent player. "Big Grey and Yang would be at each other's throats. It's going to be fun."

Callie laughed, which sent Arizona's stomach flip-flopping. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

* * *

The fourth-year computer science students were filing out of the lecture theatre when Arizona's phone started to ring. She fished it out of her satchel and jabbed the call button without looking at the screen. "Dr Robbins." She had to suppress a yawn before saying that. _Man, I am tired._

"Whoa, no need to sound so formal!" Teddy exclaimed from the other side of the line. It felt like they hadn't spoken for quite some time, as Teddy was working the night shift and was gone by the time Arizona got home. "Just checking in on you, since I keep going to bed before you get up for breakfast."

"Oh, things have been all right," said Arizona. Her eyes scanned the bare theatre. "Exciting on the FBI front. Way more exciting than this thing I'm trying to write and get published."

"Countersecurity measures against attacks involving yarns?"

"_Mutation strings_, Teddy," corrected Arizona.

Teddy laughed. "Close enough," she said. "Remember though: that paper will get you tenureship. FBI will get you burnout. I know it's a difficult choice," she added wryly. "But you need to seriously think about yourself. Maybe Stark was right."

"Don't remind me," the academic rolled her eyes. "I haven't even renegotiated my contract with the Chief yet."

"Arizona! You told me you were gonna do it." Teddy chided.

"Well, that's the thing: I don't think I can," admitted Arizona. "Not with the action heating up."

"Those people were trained to be FBI agents for a reason. I'm sure they can catch the baddies even if you and Alex put reduced hours in," said Teddy.

"Jesus, Teddy, has Stark been talking to you?" Arizona asked in mild irritation. "I can take care of myself. And so can Alex. We're adults."

"Negatory on Stark talking to me, but hey, you may be _adults_, but I'm a doctor."

"Okay, _Doctor_ Altman," sighed Arizona. "Anyway, we need to catch up. I kinda miss you. Are you working tonight? I'm not going anywhere after I finish up at UDub."

"I'm afraid so," replied Teddy. "But you can get home as soon as you can and we can have dinner together before I go to the hospital," she suggested. "Can you pick something up?"

"Sure can. Sushi, pizza or Chinese?"

"You pick," the surgeon answered easily. "See you soon!"

In that moment, Arizona was glad that despite her ridiculously busy professional life - she hasn't had a decent meal and more than four hours' sleep since she had started consulting with the FBI, she was glad that her best friend and flatmate was probably the most low maintenance person she knew.

* * *

That night, over a dinner of orange chicken and vegetable fried rice, Teddy and Arizona told each other about the interesting developments in their lives. There weren't lots, but the two friends always enjoyed a good conversation with each other. After all, it was most likely the only thing that kept them sane while they were in Afghanistan.

The doorbell rang. Arizona, confused, looked at the door then looked at Teddy. "You expecting anybody?"

The surgeon shook her head. "No," she said. "Are you?"

"I'm not," replied Arizona. "I'll go get it." She got up and opened the door. "Callie," she said surprised. The dark-haired woman was holding a six pack of that same craft beer from the first LAN, and a large bag that contained her gaming laptop. "The LAN party isn't until tomorrow."

"I know." Callie shrugged. "It's just, I don't have Sof tonight and I feel like I need to blow off some steam."

"Oh," said Arizona. "All right." She pulled the door wider and stepped aside to allow Callie in. "Teddy and I were just finishing up dinner," she told her. "You can join us if you like?"

Teddy, meanwhile, was getting up from the table and clearing the plates. "I'm actually just going to work." She shot Arizona a look. "There's some wine and popcorn somewhere in the kitchen. Don't forget to load the dishwasher." She started gathering her bag and jacket from the coffee table, and said her goodbyes as she rushed out the door.

Callie watched Teddy leave. "Did she do that because of me?" she wondered aloud.

"No!" exclaimed Arizona. "Nothing to do with you at all. Teddy thinks the whole gaming thing is geeky. Even when we were in Kabul she avoided it when the guys and I would start up a game on the Xbox. She probably wanted to escape before we started talking about respawn rates and artillery." She laughed nervously.

"Respawn what?"

Arizona waved her off. "It's nothing. So, you wanted to blow off some steam? I thought the FBI had shooting ranges for that."

"Yeah, but," Callie shook her head, "shooting a gun for recreational purposes isn't something I find relaxing."

"So you play a first person shooter computer game," said Arizona slowly.

"Yeah, but they haven't invented gun recoil effects for laptops yet, have they?"

"Good point." Arizona went to grab her gaming laptop from her bedroom, but stopped. "Hey, let's do something more fun than shooting up people," she suggested. She walked to the TV stand this time and pulled out two white plastic steering wheels. "Ever played Mario Kart before?"

"Heard of it," Callie said warily. "Isn't that a kid's game?"

"A _kid's_ game?" Arizona let out a disbelieving noise. She shoved the steering wheel at the taller woman. "You don't think Mario Kart is hardcore, do you? Come on, Torres. You can say it to my face."

Callie accepting the steering wheel, staring at the glint in Arizona's eyes. "All right," she said, sneering. "I bet you this is going to be a piece of cake though. Not even a challenge."

"How much are you willing to bet on it?" Arizona demanded playfully.

* * *

Four hours, one and a half bottles of wine and two beers each later, Arizona was doubled over laughing as Callie clumsily navigated through Mario Kart's Rainbow Road map. The blonde had given up long ago, her character - Baby Peach in the baby stroller kart - sitting idle at the spot where she had last fallen off the track.

"Goddamit!" Callie groaned as King Boo rolled off the track again. While waiting to respawn, she took a long drag on her third bottle of beer. "I didn't want to admit this, Robbins, but this game is fucking impossible."

"Rainbow Road is impossible when you're trying to get sloshed at the same time," said Arizona. She was wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "How about we quit the game and calm down for a while?" she suggested.

Callie's eyebrows went up doubtfully. "Or we can quit the game and continue drinking?"

"Or we can continue drinking." Arizona nodded. She grabbed the remotes and turned the Wii off, then the television. "Hang on, let me just get us some water."

"Water?" Callie asked, bewildered. "I meant drink_ alcohol,_ Arizona." She giggled.

"Well, it's a trick I learned in the Marines," Arizona told her. "If you drink water in between drinks it does two things: one, you dilute the alcohol in your system, which makes you less drunk, and two, you pee more often, which makes you less drunk. Also the hangover is way better than it should be." She patted Callie's thigh as she stood up. She barely made it five steps before she swayed. She was sure that she was going to be falling on her butt in front of Callie, until a pair of steady arms quickly wrapped around her waist.

"Whoa, I got you," Callie said, pulling Arizona close. The blonde's back was soothed by the warmth emanating from Callie's body.

"I'm an embarrassing drunk." Arizona hung her head in shame.

"Don't worry," Callie said lightheartedly. "We're both embarrassing drunks."

Arizona turned so she was face to face with Callie, but didn't move out of her embrace. Their bodies were pressed up against each other. She was suddenly aware of Callie's large, firm breasts pressing up against her chest, and Callie's hips aligned just above hers. Arizona looked into the other woman's brown eyes, so deep and dark that they led her to gasp involuntarily - this intake of breath causing her to inhale Callie's light coconut smell. "Uhm, Callie."

"Arizona," Callie said slowly, in a low, husky voice.

Arizona knew that Callie was absorbed in her blue eyes. "Hey Callie." Arizona hesitated. _What do I say now?_ "I'm not just saying this because I may be a teeny bit drunk, but -" She was unable to finish, because Callie Torres's warm, slightly bitter mouth collided against hers. A gleeful energy had been released within Arizona, because she clutched at the lapels of Callie's cardigan and kissed her back, overcoming her lustful thoughts to match the dark-haired woman's curious eagerness. _We're not gonna have sex tonight. Just kissing._

Just as both of them had allowed themselves to relax into the kiss, Callie pushed Arizona away, as gently as she could. "I'm sorry," she gasped. "I didn't mean to."

Arizona stepped back and brushed herself off. "I think we should turn in," she said quickly. "You can sleep on the couch, driving's probably dangerous at this point. I'll get you a blanket and a pillow." Attempting to hide her hurt feelings, Arizona busied herself by making her way to the closet where they kept the linens. _Things are so fucked up now_, the dismal thought rang in her mind.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Okay, guys, I'm going on a short hiatus so I won't be updating next week. I'm behind on writing a chapter but I can't devote much time to doing that at the moment because I've got coursework due at university. Things are about to heat up real fast in this story, so stay tuned! Thanks for all your feedback :)

* * *

"I'm guessing a certain law enforcement agent slept here last night."

Arizona jumped at the sound of the voice. She was concentrated on walking as quietly as possible to the shower that she didn't notice that Teddy was seated at the kitchen counter, nursing a cup of tea. "Hey Teddy," she said. "Aren't you meant to be in bed?"

"I should have been in bed hours ago, but there was a car accident so I got stuck in the pit for another three hours. Teenagers trying to race on a weeknight when there are no cops stationed around, and they crashed into a cargo truck. A couple of them were seriously touch and go at one point, but no casualties," Teddy told Arizona proudly. "I'm just having something relaxing before I get some sleep." She nodded at the couch. "So, Callie slept here?"

"Yeah. We had a bit to drink so it wasn't okay for her to drive." Arizona noticed that the blanket and pillow that she handed to Callie last night were arranged neatly on the end of the couch, and the bottles of alcohol on the coffee table have been put away. She glanced at the dishwasher behind Teddy and saw the ON light was flashing, but not the CYCLE light, so a wash had just finished. "She must have left so she could go see her daughter in the morning."

"Hmm."

"What?"

"So I take it that you ladies had fun last night, then?"

"I suppose you could say it was fun," said Arizona._ Especially the part where we kissed._ She mentally kicked herself. _Oh wait, I'm not supposed to be thinking about that_. She forced a grin at her friend. "Callie sucked at Rainbow Road on Mario Kart, you should have seen it."

"Okay." Teddy raised an eyebrow. "Was that the only fun thing that happened?"

Arizona swallowed. "_Teddy_. Nothing is going on between me and Callie."

The trauma surgeon smirked. "Oh, but not yet."

"Callie has other things going on in her life and I don't think dating people is a priority at the moment," Arizona said.

"You guys must have had a real heart-to-heart then."

"Teddy."

Teddy took a sip of her tea, then detached her lips from the mug, smiling slyly at the academic. "What? I'm just saying."

"And I'm just going to shower," declared Arizona. Once she was inside the bathroom, she took her clothes off, then her leg, and then settled herself in her shower chair. As the warm jets of water streamed down her body, she took the opportunity to think about what happened with Callie last night: the giggling, the kissing - that was glorious, despite its briefness. Callie obviously was attracted to her, but Arizona didn't know if it was for real, or if it was in a rebound sort of way.

_Shit, I have a LAN party on tonight_, Arizona suddenly remembered. _And Callie's coming to that._ But she didn't put it past the FBI agent if she decided to give this one a skip.

* * *

Lexie looked up at the knock on the door, surprised to see Arizona standing there. "Arizona," she greeted. "Did someone call for you?" The blonde had told Lexie that she wouldn't be coming in at all that week unless absolutely necessary.

Arizona shook her head. "I just wanted to check in if everything was okay," she lied. Although she told Lexie that she was focusing on the paper she was trying to publish during that week, after the events of last night she had a strong desire to see how Callie was doing. So far, she hadn't seen her. "Everything is okay, right?"

"Yes, absolutely," the younger woman reassured her. "Derek led a skills session on manning the surveillance van today, and Mark and Owen had planned logistics for the big LAN party. It's going to be in the city and all but they booked the five of us into a fancy hotel for the three nights as a cover. It's going to be amazing," she gushed. She noticed the distracted look on the other woman's face. "Is everything okay, Arizona?"

Arizona snapped out of wondering about Callie. "Yeah, totally," she said. "This case has just become a big part of my professional life, you know. Like my work at the university, I can't help but be a control freak and keep checking up on it."

"I think I'm too young to know what you mean," Lexie said cheekily.

"You may be Little Grey and I may have a PhD but I don't have that many years on you," Arizona chuckled. "Anyway," she jerked a thumb towards the direction of the bullpen, "I'm just gonna head off now. I took an hour off for lunch but I should really be getting back. Long bike ride," she tapped the helmet under her arm, "I'll see you tonight, Lexie."

"Yeah, see you!" Lexie waved confusedly at the academic's retreating back, wondering why Arizona had only taken an hour off when the university was a twenty-five minute bike ride from the offices.

* * *

This was a bad idea, Robbins. She's avoiding you! Arizona jabbed at the elevator buttons, trying to get on one before she ran into Callie. She shifted her weight impatiently from one foot to another. _Ping!_ The light above the furthest elevator went on, so she shuffled there while waiting for the doors to open.

An all too familiar pair of dark brown eyes greeted her. "Hey." Callie stepped out of the elevator, smiling tightly at Arizona. "When did you get here?"

"About ten minutes ago," replied Arizona. She watched the elevator doors close. _Fuck it_, she thought, _I'll get the next one_. "Went to check on Lexie."

"Oh, you got nothing to worry about." Callie did a small, dismissive wave. "You know she'll get in touch with you if she had a major problem."

"I know."

"So..." Callie cocked her head to the side, as if trying to read the blonde's expression.

"So..." echoed Arizona. Two can play this game. But she gave in. "I've got to get back to UDub." She reached around Callie - inhaling that smell of coconuts again - to press the elevator buttons.

"Uhm, Arizona." Callie's head was turned towards the panel. "You pressed the up button."

"Fuck." Arizona pressed the down button. To her relief, an available elevator made itself noticed almost immediately. As the doors slid open, she looked at Callie. "I'll see you then."

"Yeah, I'll see you later," said Callie. "I'll bring those craft beers." Her eyes moved to the side, recalling a memory, then she laughed. "Big Grey and Yang seem to really like those."

"Yeah, they do. Bye." The doors shut, and the elevator started descending. Arizona had to take a breather from that terrifyingly awkward conversation with Callie._ Hang on, she's coming tonight? What does that mean?_ She snatched her phone from a dedicated pocket in her messenger bag and keyed in a text:_ If you hook up with a chick while both inebriated - enough to be sloppy but not enough to forget, and she still wants to hang with you, what does that mean?_

The reply came minutes later as Arizona was securing her bag to her bicycle. _What the fuck, Robbins? You scored and you're reading too much into it. Just enjoy the ride,_ it read.

Arizona rolled her eyes. _I like to read into things, Karev,_ she typed._ So what do you think?_

_I think she likes you well enough, but I also think that I just realised that you're six years older than me,_ Alex replied. Arizona's phone beeped with another text soon after:_ Wait, is this about Torres?_

How did Alex pick up on that quickly. Her hand froze above her screen._ I would say fuck you but you don't deserve the sheer pleasure that only sex allows._ Indignation may not be the best route but it was hell of a lot better than denying it flat out - Arizona knew she wasn't good at that.

Arizona could almost hear Alex's sneering voice in his reply:_ Lesbians._ The conversation was over for now - she didn't want her protegé to start asking any more questions. Arizona tucked her phone back into her bag, unlocked her bike and put away the chains, secured her helmet and sunglasses on her head and finally, she mounted the saddle and pedalled away.

"Calliope Torres isn't just someone you score with," she muttered to herself as she waited for a green light at the intersection. _And that's the problem._

* * *

The six women sat around Arizona's table, furiously pressing keys on their laptops. At the beginning of the evening, they decided to split up into teams and play against each other. Arizona and Cristina captained each team, and Cristina insisted that her and Meredith had to be on different teams, so they could compete better against each other. This resulted in Arizona on a team with the Grey sisters, while Cristina had Bailey and Callie.

Cristina had cackled wickedly at this outcome: "You may have two computer science geniuses, Robbins, but I have the passionate and competitive ones!" she taunted Arizona.

Three hours later and four of the six women were slurring their words as they yelled expletives at each other. There was extra alcohol tonight besides the craft beer, courtesy of Arizona and Cristina, but Arizona and Callie were pointedly refusing to drink any of it.

"Yes!" Bailey hit the table excitedly with the heel of her palm. "Big Grey, you're so drunk you can't even walk straight on this game!"

A dazed Meredith grinned at Bailey. "I'll get you back," she said. "More tequila for Bailey, please!"

"I don't see a bartender around here." Bailey smirked. "But you're about to get served!"

"Hey, quit the trash talking," Cristina told Bailey. "I can see Robbins about to knife you from behind!"

Bailey turned to Cristina. "Why aren't you doing anything about it then? You're the one with the big, scary sniper."

Arizona took advantage of this distraction to stab Bailey. She cheered and high-fived with Lexie. "Get your head in the game!" her and Lexie dorkily chorused.

"Ah, shit," said Cristina. She manipulated her mouse and pressed a few keys, training her crosshairs on Arizona. The blonde noticed this so she immediately started scurrying for cover. "Goddamit Robbins, stay still!" yelled the FBI agent.

"I got her!" Callie cried out. She pressed a button and a rocket hit the wall above Arizona's, and the collapsing structure fell on her. Callie smiled smugly at Arizona's laptop screen, which was dimmed while she respawned. "RPG-7." She winked at Bailey and let Cristina clap her on the back.

Despite her bruised ego - she hadn't been killed once in the game so far - Arizona couldn't deny how sexy that was.

* * *

A phone beeped. "Bailey, is that yours?" Callie asked.

Bailey was intently focused on her screen, deftly maneuvering through the course. "It's probably just my husband. Ignore it." she said. "Yang, cover me, I'm going to try get Little Grey over here."

Another phone beeped. Then another. Then another. Finally, Arizona's phone, which she kept on the table beside her laptop, sounded off as well. She picked it up. "Okay, something's going on," she tried to tell the other women. She looked down at the message. It was from Mark: _Come to HQ right away_. Arizona frantically attempted to meet the only other sober person's eye. "Callie. Look at your phone."

The dark-haired woman obliged, fishing her phone out of her purse. "Shit." She gulped, the looked up at Arizona. "Was that Mark asking you to come to HQ?"

Arizona nodded.

"Guys, pay attention," Meredith spoke up. "We already killed you both. Twice."

"Only because you're hanging around at spawn points, Mer!" Cristina retorted.

The phones beeped again.

"That was Owen," Callie and Arizona said in unison. Arizona gave Callie a look, and the other woman nodded. She cleared her throat. "All right, everybody, shut up!" Everyone froze. She pointed a finger at Bailey. "You, put that beer down." She pointed at Meredith and Cristina, who were about to engage in a scuffle. "Let go of each other," Callie said sternly.

"We need to get to HQ as soon as possible," Arizona explained to them. "Something happened, we don't know what it is, but they want us there right away."

"How are we gonna do that? None of us are safe to drive, I have to admit," said Lexie.

"Maybe we can fit in one vehicle." Callie stood up and went up to the living room to peer out the window. "Hey, whose minivan is that?" After she was greeted with silence, she looked back at the women sitting around the table. "I'll ask again: whose minivan is that?"

"It's mine," Bailey admitted. When Cristina gave her a surprised look, she hit her lightly on the arm. "I have children! Someday you'll have no choice." She held up a finger at Meredith, whose mouth was half open. "Children, Grey. Plural."

A third message had come through. It was from Derek this time around. _Any more delays and they'd start getting the Chief to contact us_. Arizona got up and walked where Callie was to have a look at the minivan as well. "Hey, that thing can easily fit six people, right?"

"Are you kidding? It'll fit nine, easy," said Callie. "Let's take these drunks and go." She strode back to the den, making a beeline for Bailey's purse. "Where are your goddamn car keys? We gotta go!"

Without much fanfare, they managed to usher the other four women to Bailey's minivan. Arizona made sure that they had put their seatbelts on while Callie was familiarising herself with the car's console and transmission. When Arizona hopped in the front passenger seat, Callie started the engine. "I'll call Owen first," she told Arizona, "to tell him we're coming."

Wild howls of laughter emanated from the back row.

"And probably get him to have three or four pitchers of water out."

They heard Bailey yelp. "Little Grey, quit drooling on me!" the diminutive agent cried out.

"Make that ice cold," said Arizona. "With actual ice cubes in it, so we can pick them out and stuff them down clothing if necessary."

Smirking, Callie nodded in agreement, then held the phone to her ear. "Owen? Yeah, we got your texts. We'll be there as soon as possible."

* * *

Derek was amazed at how intoxicated his wife and the other FBI agents were upon arrival to headquarters. "Seriously, Mer? Lexie?" He looked at his wife, then his sister-in-law. "You two are getting really in character for this LAN party, huh?"

"I swear my alcohol tolerance was much higher than this back in college," groaned Meredith.

To this, Derek softened. He caressed Meredith's jawbone lightly with his thumb. "Oh, Meredith," he said, chuckling. "Your alcohol tolerance was nonexistent, even in college." He poured the two women a glass of water - ice cold, like Arizona suggested - and told them to drink up.

"They told me the room for the sorority party was here." Mark sauntered in, smirking at the four women, who were all in various states ranging from loopy to sleepy. His eyes rested on a frustrated Callie and a haggard Arizona, who were deliberately seated away from the other four. "Sober nannies?"

"Don't even start," said Callie. "Where's Sof, by the way?"

Mark pulled out a white, extra-large walkie-talkie from the deep pocket of his hoodie. "She's sleeping in my office," he said. "I didn't bring her in here because of the noise, but I'm glad I didn't bring her in here because it smells like the craft beer I like and we can't have daddy yelling at mommy in front of baby over alcoholic drinks that mommy stole." He laughed. "Long story short: she's in her stroller, I've reclined it all the way back and she's fine - I even got that pink throw blanket that she likes."

Callie glared at him. "Mark, she doesn't like that blanket."

"Uh, yeah she does," said Mark. "As long as the fuzzy side is up."

"All right, everyone." Owen walked in. "Let's get started." He pulled up a chair at the end of the table, sat down, but leaned back suddenly. Clearly he had caught a whiff of the alcohol, which led him to notice that Bailey was actually sleeping, her snoring head resting on Cristina's shoulder. "Wait, were you playing video games or were you out clubbing?"

"Just tell us what happened, Owen," said Callie.

"The Combat Tyrants tried to crack into ten of the VC firms on that list they got from Dalton Heywood Moore," said Owen. "I mean, we've seen the attack coming, and so have the firms. That's why most of them were able to fend it off. But the suspects still managed to get a sweet two million bucks." He went on to explain in more detail. "I'd set up a list of tasks but we'll do that another day since most of you are drunk."

"Wait," said Arizona. "Two million dollars is ambitious. Not even the grandest LAN party you could throw would cost that. This just seems like flat out greedy robbery now."

Owen looked at Callie. "Yeah, it seems like it," the dark-haired woman agreed.

* * *

Derek leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. "What is our proposed course of action?"

"We're going with Mark's previous idea. We want to take Gary Clark in for questioning," said Owen. "We're just going to ask him if he knows anything, gauge how good of a liar he is. We're not going to ask him about his computers or anything."

"Wouldn't he wonder why he was being questioned, though?" asked Arizona.

"He might. Maybe it would send him into a panic and he'd make a trackable mistake next time." Owen nodded. "But his accounting firm is linked to a few of the companies that were hit during the NASDAQ incident, and he worked personally one of the cases for one of these firms. We could get in touch with someone from that company and work it like they want Clark to talk to us for them."

"It's a smart move, if I can say so myself," said Mark.

"Thanks, Sloan," said Owen. "Anyway, when he comes in for questioning - which will be in the next couple of days, depending on how fast Webber can arrange that - I don't want any of you," he gestured at the women, "in here. Not even hiding in your offices. If he spots you he may be able to recognise you later on."

Arizona and Callie nodded in agreement. "Put Alex on that list of people who can't be here too," said Arizona. When Owen and Mark gave her a questioning look, she continued, "He's going to the LAN party with his friends, so it would be strange to see him in the FBI office, right?"

A noise that sounded a lot like "dork" escaped Mark's lips. Everyone chose to ignore him.

"All right," the redheaded man agreed. "We'll keep everyone updated. Meanwhile, let's get everyone home, shall we?"

Before all the sober people in the room could put their heads together, Mark hastily made an excuse about having to take Sofia home, and left before anyone could say anything else. Except for Callie, who yelled his name through the open door.

Mark whirled around, a smug smile on his face. "What? Do you want to expose your dear daughter to these drunks?" He waited for Callie's expression to change. "That's what I thought. I'm out!" He turned around smoothly and continued the walk to his office.

"Glad to see that fatherhood has done wonders for his humanity," Derek said in an undertone.

* * *

After the tedious work of making sure everyone and their vehicles were safely home, Callie walked Arizona to her door. "I can assure you that nights like these don't happen often in the FBI," Callie told her.

Arizona raised an eyebrow. "So, you just pull out the stops when civilians are around?"

"Probably." Callie smiled slyly. "Look, I'd tell you, but your security clearance isn't high enough." She laughed, and seconds later, Arizona joined her.

"So..." Arizona watched as the breeze made some of Callie's hair fall across her face. She fought the urge to brush it off with her fingers.

"I had a surprisingly fun night." Obviously noticing Arizona's gaze on her, Callie's speech picked up in pace, and her hands were waving around more than usual. "It was crazy, but hey, I felt twenty-one again. No kids, no curfews, and people around me doing stupid things under the influence of alcohol."

"Yeah." Arizona stared at Callie's lips, and unconsciously licked hers. Collecting herself - and praying that Callie didn't noticed - she unlocked her front door. "Well, good night, Callie."

"Good night, Arizona," said Callie.

Arizona's first mistake was not thinking about it hard enough. She found her hands on Callie's waist, preventing the taller woman from creating more space between them, and she stepped forward for a kiss, only to be deflected by Callie's hand pushing her back. "Calliope," she gasped apologetically. Her hands fell limply to her sides.

"Arizona," Callie spoke evenly. "I can't right now. Not when we haven't talked about it."

"So when are we going to talk about it?" Arizona's voice cracked, making her question seem more like a plea.

Callie looked down. "I don't know yet," she said. "I'll see you soon, Arizona." She turned and headed to the T-Bird.

Arizona let herself in and rested her forehead against the closed door as she listened to Callie's car engine rev away from her driveway. She breathed in and out as she thought about what just happened. Callie wanted to talk about it. That was a good sign. But she didn't know when she wanted to talk about it. That was a bad sign.

"You look like a disappointed high school sophomore on her very first date," a voice behind her said.

Arizona jumped. "Teddy! You really need to stop doing that," she said.

"Were you with Callie just then?" asked the surgeon, examining Arizona's face.

"I was." Arizona nodded. "Women are so complicated." She purposely left out the part about the kiss, and the almost-kiss. She knew that Teddy was smart and would have picked up on the growing flirtation between the two anyway.

Teddy laughed, while wrapping a sympathetic arm around her friend. "You should try men. They get irrationally emotional over things like sports and reproductive rights," she joked.

"If Tim was here he'd tell me what to do about my situation," sighed Arizona. Her brother was popular in high school and coached Arizona through her first pubescent crushes, even if he wasn't too great at getting girls to commit to him.

"You know, I've always wondered how you got so lucky with girls even when you claim that you learned all that from Tim," said Teddy, remembering the string of girls Arizona brought home when Teddy was new to Seattle. "Dude was a Neanderthal."

"Can't help but miss him though."

"Yeah. I miss him too." Teddy breathed deeply. "So, what are you going to do about Callie?"

"I don't know," said Arizona. "Maybe I'll just wait it out. It's a bad idea to get involved with someone that has most of their adult life set in stone anyway." She shrugged Teddy's arm off her. "I'm headed to bed. Don't enjoy Netflix too much."_ I'm not going to come to Callie_, she thought, _I'm going to wait for Callie to come to me_. While brushing her teeth, she made a mental note to tell Lexie in the morning that she was required to stick around at UDub for the next week or so, and to send work through to her by messenger or by email since she couldn't come into the office.

* * *

Arizona enjoyed a series of Callie-free days at the university. She felt lighter and, if she was being honest, a little bit defiant. After a lecture that she particularly enjoyed delivering, not to mention a satisfying consulting session with her PhD students, she headed back to her office for a cup of coffee and some emailing.

Only she couldn't get into her office, because Callie Torres was standing the corridor, right outside her door.

Arizona stopped in her tracks had to make the quick decision on whether she should go to the staff lounge and have her coffee there instead of going to her office and having to face Callie. You're an adult, Robbins, the voice in her head reminded her. She's come to you, so don't run away from her. Bracing herself, Arizona walked into the corridor as confidently as she could.

"Hi there," said Callie.

Arizona swore that Callie's brown eyes lit up when she saw her. "Calliope," she said cheerfully. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Lexie told me that you weren't coming into the office for a while," said Callie.

"Well, I've got a deadline so I need to be here for a couple of weeks," lied Arizona. She unlocked her office door and gestured for Callie to go in before her. "Take a seat. Can I help with anything?" She closed the door behind Callie and assumed her seat behind her desk. "Oh, you want something to drink? I can get one of my masters students to get it."

"Coffee, please." Callie adjusted herself in the seat across from Arizona. She looked around. "Nice office."

"Oh, this?" Arizona swivelled her chair from side to side as she exaggeratedly took her office in. "Well, the federal government doesn't spend that much on state universities as it does on the FBI, but we do what we can."

Callie was clearly done with Arizona's theatrics. "We need to talk."

"About what?" She was just playing coy to infuriate the other woman.

"You know," muttered Callie. "The kiss that night. When we were playing Mario Kart." She cringed at the unintended humour in her statement.

"I thought that was just a drunken mistake," said Arizona._ I hope it isn't._

Callie flinched. "Uhm, Arizona, how do I say this?"

"Say it honestly."

"It wasn't just a drunken mistake to me," Callie declared. "I actually want to like, take you out on a date or something." She stopped and looked at Arizona anxiously. "So, uhm, do you want to? Go on a date with me?"

"Hang on, Callie," said Arizona. "Erica was your first woman?"

Callie bit her lip and nodded.

"Then it'll have to be a no from me.'

"What? You kissed me!" Callie exclaimed, her hands flailing about. "On your doorstep! Like someone on their first date in middle school!"

"You kissed me first!" Arizona huffed.

The FBI agent crossed her arms. "Oh, so we're going to play that game now?" she asked. "Come on, Arizona. I like you, and I'd like one date."

"Callie."

"Tell me honestly how you feel about me," Callie challenged.

"Well," Arizona hesitated, "I don't think it's any mystery that I'm attracted to you. But you've only been with one woman before, and I don't date newborns."

Callie raised an inquiring eyebrow. "Newborns?"

"You know, new lesbians," explained Arizona. "Most of them decide to go back to men, so I've resolved not to date any of them."

"How the heck would you know that? You've taken a representative sample?"

_Not exactly, but close enough_, Arizona replied silently. What came out of her mouth was, "No! Calliope, I like you too, but you've just gotten out of a relationship and I don't want to pick up the pieces."

"I was with Erica on and off for three years. I know how to be in relationship with a woman." Callie's eyes were averted from Arizona's. She wordlessly ruminated for a few seconds. "You're not picking up the pieces," she said. "I've been attracted to you since the first time I saw you."

Arizona softened. "Me too," she admitted. She stood up and went around her desk, resting her backside against it while facing Callie. "You know what I wanted to do since the first time I saw you?"

"What?" asked the dark-haired woman. She was staring at Arizona, not in an entirely innocent way.

"This." Arizona stood up. She cupped Callie's face gently and closed the distance between them with her lips. A firm kiss that didn't last very long. She pulled away but kept her hand on Callie's cheek, and their foreheads resting against each other. "I've always wanted to know how your lips feel like," she confessed quietly.

"What do you think?" Callie whispered.

Arizona grinned. "Just like I expected - heaven."

Callie grinned back at her and pulled Arizona in for a hungry, passionate kiss.

* * *

**Next Chapter: **Arizona and Callie keep finding themselves in each other's bed. Arizona connects the dots and discovers something that would compromise the task force's plans.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **You guys and your predictions... I love them! There are only three chapters left before this is finished, then I'm staying away from while I plan my next project, which is going to be a Pretty Little Liars fanfic - yeah, I double dip. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and check out next week's excerpts on** wip-alterocentrist** on Tumblr!

* * *

Arizona's eyes fluttered open and she was momentarily disoriented by the plain navy blue sheets covering her naked body._ I wouldn't buy anything in this colour_, she thought. Everything fell into place when she noticed the equally naked woman beside her. _Calliope_.

It had been a week since that intense hour of kissing and groping in her office - which they eventually had to stop because Callie's phone wouldn't stop ringing - Arizona and Callie started sneaking around in the FBI break room, in Callie's office, and once in Arizona's kitchen during a LAN party. They even exchanged flirty texts here and there. Things eventually escalated and on a Sofia-free night, Callie invited her over after work. And Arizona had the most mind-blowing sex of her life. So far, she reminded herself hopefully, as she wanted this to be more than a one-time thing.

Callie stirred. She had been facing away from Arizona, her hair flowing down her bare back. She turned around and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Hey there," she said, her voice sexily hoarse from sleep. "I'm sure other women tell you this all the time but you have this rare gift of looking amazing when you've just woken up."

"I could say the same about you." Arizona tried to fight a blush, but failed.

Callie inched towards her and she reached out to place a hand on Arizona's hip, and traced light circles on it with two fingers. "You are as fucking gorgeous naked as I expected you to be," she said. "It's a public service that it's a legal obligation to wear clothes in public, because _holy hell_, Arizona."

"Holy hell is an oxymoron."

"Hmm." Callie held on to the blonde's hip as leverage to pull herself closer. "Don't change the subject." She started planting feathery kisses on Arizona's neck, shoulder and collarbone.

"_Calliope_," Arizona moaned approvingly. "I'm a pretty humble person, I don't feel right vocally appraising my own naked body with other people."

"Not even someone you've had great sex with?" Callie asked. Her breath tickled Arizona's jugular, which made goosebumps erupt on the back of her neck. Callie moved her head so that she was at Arizona's eye level once more. "You know, you're the only one who can make my name sound like a song." Their lips met.

"Really?" Arizona asked between kisses.

"Well, my dad is the only other person that calls me that, and he says it in that schmuck way-"

Arizona stopped kissing back and put a silencing finger on the FBI agent's lips. "Calliope, I really don't want to be talking about your father while we're naked in bed like this," she said. Her hand ran down Callie's side, then slid back up to cup a breast. She watched Callie's eyes darken in anticipation. She continued in a much lower voice, "And I don't want to hear about your father when we're about to do this." She kissed Callie full on, not pausing for a second to slip her tongue right in the other woman's mouth. Arizona couldn't help but feeling satisfied when Callie moaned in response.

A voice boomed from outside. "Good morning, mami, we brought croissants!"

Startled, Callie broke the kiss. "Shit," she said, slapping her forehead. "I forgot that Sofia and Mark were coming over for breakfast today."

"Why didn't you tell him that you were going to be busy?" asked Arizona.

"Quieter, please," Callie told her. She had jumped out of bed and quickly threw on some pyjamas. "I was a little distracted last night, as you can see. And Mark's apartment is just next door, and this is a Saturday routine, how could I possibly stop them?" She tossed all the discarded clothes from last night into her clothes hamper.

"Callie? Is everything okay?" asked Mark. "Are you still sleeping? I was afraid this would happen." His voice switched into a singsong manner, "Sofiarita, your lazy mami is still sleeping. Shall we go wake her up?" Approaching steps grew louder and louder from outside the door.

"Oh, shit," Arizona muttered. "He can't see me in here. _Sofia_ can't see me in here." She deftly rolled out of bed and used her arms to roll herself to the bathroom. Gaining her presence of mind, she closed and locked the bathroom door as quietly as she could and sat on the closed toilet lid. She listened as Callie's bedroom door opened.

"Morning, Callie!" Mark said. "Is everything all right? You look like you haven't slept much."

_Of course she didn't. I was rocking her world!_ Arizona couldn't help but feel pride at this.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Arizona heard Callie cleared her throat, then expertly feigned a sneeze. "Actually, I'm feeling a little under the weather, Mark. I've had a scratchy throat and I've been sneezing all night."

"Hmm. You do sound a little hoarse," said Mark.

_From screaming my name_, thought Arizona.

"Maybe it's not a good idea to have breakfast today then. You gotta get some rest. Sofia might catch whatever you're getting."

"Yeah, she might," said Callie. "You go enjoy your croissants, okay? Have extra strawberry jam for me." Her voice changed, so Arizona guessed that she was addressing Sofia. "And be nice when daddy gets you new clothes to wear." It took a couple of minutes before Callie had properly seen Mark and Sofia off, but she returned soon enough. "The coast is clear."

Arizona crawled out of the bathroom. Callie smiled at Arizona and picked her up. "So, this is how you make a lady swoon?" Arizona asked her.

"I'm so sorry you had to do that," said Callie. She lowered Arizona onto the bed.

"Did Mark live next door before or after you had Sofia?"

"After," replied Callie. "Why do you ask?"

I want to check that you're not going to run back to him. Arizona shrugged. "Just curious." She got back under the covers. "Hey, are we going to tell anyone about..." she gestured between her and Callie, "whatever this is?"

Callie sat next to her. "I don't know," she said. "It's not exactly unethical to be sleeping with a civilian consultant. But maybe we should keep it on the down low? For now? If that's okay with you, of course."

"Yeah," Arizona agreed. "Of course, that's perfectly fine with me. I mean, telling people would just come with all sorts of," she paused, "expectations." She laughed nervously.

The other woman mirrored her laughter. "Hey, do you want to put some clothes on?" she asked. "I'm going to go make us some breakfast."

"All right," said Arizona. When Callie left the room, she reached for her prosthetic, fastened it then went on a search for her clothes. She remembered that Callie had thrown them in the hamper._ I guess she doesn't mind if I borrow hers then_, she thought. She found a threadbare Columbia t-shirt and black sweatpants. They were quite loose so she rolled them up at the waist.

The smell of spiced meat was filling the apartment's air when Arizona emerged from the bedroom. Callie was next to the stove beating some eggs in a bowl. "I hope you like chorizo in your omelettes," she said cheerfully. Her eyes ran appreciatively down Arizona's body. "You look nice in my clothes." Callie poured her a cup of coffee and slid it across the counter. "Have a seat. This'll be ready in no time."

What is this? Is this dating? Arizona wondered as she sat on the stool and wrapped her hands around the warm cup. "Thanks, Calliope," she said.

The dark-haired woman must have heard the soft and earnest tone to her voice, because her attention was diverted from her cooking to Arizona. They held each other's gazes for what it seemed like a while, then Callie sprinkled some more pepper in the eggs before pouring them into the pan. "It's just some breakfast and coffee, Arizona," she said, shrugging.

"I know." Arizona poured a sachet of cream in her coffee cup. "But it's still nice. Last night was nice too."

Callie smiled widely. "You think?"

Arizona nodded. "Definitely. I'm sorry about cancelling your Saturday morning ritual with Sofia and Mark, by the way," she said.

"Oh, don't be!" said Callie. "I'd much rather have you here. It's a nice change. Sometimes I think Mark and I get too wrapped up in the whole mommies and daddies thing to forget that we're hot and we're sexy."

"Was Sofia conceived because you and Mark were collectively realising that you're hot and you're sexy?"

Callie laughed. "Good question, Arizona," she said. "But yeah, that's what basically happened. Erica and I had a bit of a break - a messy one - so I was sad enough to go get horny with Mark. It was a bit stupid of us, in retrospect, but I've always wanted a baby and I loved Sofia from the moment I discovered I was pregnant. And so did Mark, really, but we both decided that sex between us has to be, like, over. I got back with Erica but Mark was adamant to be in Sofia's life."

"I can see that Mark is a great dad and all. I'm sure you're over the moon that he's around to love Sofia... but am I allowed to be glad that you and him aren't having sex anymore?" Arizona asked cautiously.

"Of course," said Callie. She shook the pan lightly, then looked up again. "I, for one, am glad about that. You are_ fantastic_ in bed." She flipped the omelette, then stepped away from the stove to grab two plates and two sets of utensils from the drawers. She passed them to Arizona. "You wanna set the table? I was thinking we stay in today, watch some movies and maybe have some more sex?"

"Sure." Arizona laid out a plate in front of her and a plate next to her._ It's a Saturday_, she resolved. She never got time with Callie on a Saturday, unless it was a LAN party. They're allowed to relax. They can talk about what to call this thing between them some other time.

* * *

On Wednesday afternoon, Derek and Owen called a task force meeting to report what happened with Gary Clark, and they did so satisfied expression on their faces. "He's not a man you'd have trouble intimidating," said Owen. "But he knows how to lie."

"He clearly told us that he didn't know anyone who could possibly have anything to do with it, and if he didn't arouse our suspicions so much the first time we came across his name, we would have believed him," said Derek.

Mark leaned forward contemplatively. "Did he look shaken up at any point?"

Bailey, who was in charge of watching the interview through the camera, spoke up, "He looked appropriately shaken up from someone who was being interviewed by the feds. But he didn't look like he was guilty."

"What matters here is that if he looked scared enough that he'd panic and create a string of activities that we can track down easily," Callie told everyone. "Bailey, can you play the footage of the interview for us, but on mute?"

Bailey looked at Derek, who nodded in agreement. She set up the video footage on the meeting room screen. While everyone took this opportunity for a small break, Callie shifted, then Arizona suppressed a gasp. Alex was the only one who noticed the small noise, and he gave her a strange look.

Callie was seated next to Arizona, her chair at a perfect distance just so she could surreptitiously place her hand on the blonde's leg. The tips of her fingers just brushed lightly on the inside of Arizona's thigh, high enough that the throbbing between her legs started immediately. She made eye contact with Callie, who had her features arranged nonchalantly._ Please, please, please let me last through this meeting_, Arizona silently pleaded with her.

"I'm fast forwarding through to when we started asking him questions specific to the case," Bailey told them. She pressed a few buttons on the computer. "Here we go."

Arizona watched as Callie focused intently on Gary Clark's figure, before training her eyes on the screen herself. Clark appeared to have a medium build, a bald head, beady eyes and a moustache. In the interview, he wore a striped button down shirt, tan pants and brown shoes, which all hung loosely on his body. He was boring, standard, pedestrian - hardly a criminal mastermind that has stolen millions of money.

"Did you watch his hands at all, Bailey?" asked Callie. She leaned forward, and her fingers slid further between Arizona's legs. Arizona fought to keep her eyes from rolling back in her head. Her free hand pointed at the screen, where Clark's hands were underneath the table, clasped on his lap. "He likes to play with his hands, doesn't he?"

"So what?" asked Bailey. "I noticed that. It's a textbook sign of nerves."

"Yeah, but I didn't realise that texting sneakily under the table is a sign of nerves too."

Derek and Owen leapt out of their seats to examine the video. "Bailey, can you rewind about ten seconds back then play in slow motion?" Derek asked.

Bailey tapped a few keys, and the video played in slow motion. "I'm zooming on his hands and isolating them." Clark's hands filled the screen. Within them, a black object with a screen became clear.

"Son of a bitch," breathed Owen. "He managed to sneak a phone in there." He blew out a breath in frustration. "I should have taken a bit of a harder line and asked him to make his arms visible."

"Can we zoom in a little more? Find out if he's contacting anyone, and who it is," said Derek.

"Sorry, Shepherd, that's it," Bailey told him.

"We'll need to access his phone records," said Owen.

"Knowing people like these, they'd be using prepaid phones or cloned SIM cards. It won't be that easy to track them down," said Alex.

Owen looked at Derek. "It's true," he confirmed.

"So what do we do?" asked Mark. "Bring him in for questioning again? Ask him why he was on his phone?"

With a final brush of her hand against the inside of Arizona's thigh, Callie withdrew it and placed it on the table before offering her opinion. "I say let's try his phone records just to be safe, then keep an eye on the other guys that we presumably linked to him to see if he's gotten in touch with them over the next week or so."

Owen looked momentarily thoughtful. "Yeah, that sounds doable," he said.

"All right," said Derek. "We're adjourning this meeting for now. Lexie, Cristina, Bailey, get your computers and come to my office in five minutes."

* * *

Arizona was alone in the break room pouring herself a cup of coffee when a pair of hands slapped her backside. "Hey," a deep, sultry voice whispered from behind her. The breath was hot on her ear.

"Calliope!" Arizona steadied herself. "I'm holding a cup of extremely hot liquid here!"

Callie smirked at Arizona, not removing her hands from Arizona's ass. "You know what else is _extremely hot_?" she asked.

"What?"

The taller woman's hands ran over Arizona's curves. "Your ass," she said. "It doesn't quit."

Arizona put her coffee down before turning to face Callie. Their torsos were touching, and they could feel each other's exhaling breaths, lightly brushing the small hairs on their cheeks. "You were naughty in the meeting room today," Arizona told her. "And you're being naughty now."

"Is that such a terrible thing?" Callie leaned in closer. "Are you gonna punish me?"

"Come over for dinner tonight," Arizona blurted out, distracted by Callie's closer proximity. It didn't come out as seductively as she wanted it to.

"Funny that." Callie looked at her curiously. "I was gonna suggest that you come over tonight and I'd make you dinner. Sofia's with Mark, and Teddy would have a field day seeing me in your kitchen."

"Teddy's at a conference in Chicago, actually, so I've got the place to myself."

"Is that so?"

Arizona nodded. "I was just going to order takeout for us, but since you said you were going to cook for me, how about you stop by the grocery store to pick up your supplies while I get home to set up?" she suggested.

"All right," agreed Callie. "I'll see you in a couple of hours then?"

Arizona smiled at her, before putting a hand on her chest and pushing her backwards, enough so she can walk towards the door. "You will," she said. Still smiling, she walked back to Lexie's office, where Alex was sitting alone, eating a Philly cheesesteak sub. "Don't you have a lab to get to at UDub?"

"Got cancelled," said Alex. He looked up at Arizona. "You're sleeping with Torres, aren't you?"

"I'm not. Who told you that?" Arizona asked guardedly. But already, she could feel the heat rising up her neck and jaw.

Alex noisily slurped soda from a straw. "No one had to tell me," he said. "You're perkier than usual and you two were sitting real close together at the meeting. Don't even lie to me that nothing's going on, Robbins."

"Well, then you better keep quiet," said Arizona.

"Knew it!" Alex laughed. "Hey, I'm totally behind you. Torres is hot, you're a lucky woman. Oh, by the way, I got these from my friend." He pulled a couple of sheets of high quality paper out of his backpack and showed them to Arizona. "Your clan's laptop stickers."

Arizona took them from Alex. The stickers were patterns of white and hot pink and purple. "These look wicked," she said, grinning. "Thanks. How much do I owe you?"

"Robbins." Alex waved it off. "It's my treat."

"Thanks," she said again. Even if they'd known each other for two years, working on this case together meant that Alex was becoming less and less of a student to her and more like a brother. "Well, I've got to go now. You should go home, too, if you've got nothing else to do here."

"I will, Robbins," said Alex. "You enjoy your night."

_Oh, trust me, I will_. "You do too, Alex."

* * *

Callie's nails dug into Arizona's back as she cried the blonde's name out loud. When her body relaxed, Arizona rolled off her, smiling smugly as she lay back against the pillows.

Callie pulled the covers over them and snuggled up to Arizona's chest. She draped an arm over Arizona's abdomen. "A vegetarian would not have the stamina for what you did just then," she sighed. "That required a lot of protein."

"Oh no, they can do that if they ate things like chickpeas and potatoes and beans," said Arizona.

"Shut up, you nerd," said Callie. "I just wanted you to say that my cooking is amazing."

"Your cooking is fucking amazing," said Arizona. Callie had made them succulent Greek-inspired lamb chops over a bed of lemon and mint couscous earlier that evening, and Arizona finally understood why her mother insisted that she marry a woman that cooks. _Not that I'm going to marry Callie, of course._

"Why thanks." Callie kissed Arizona's chest. "You, on the other hand, are amazing at fucking."

Arizona couldn't help but snort. "You're a dork," she told Callie. "How you manage to bed women is beyond me."

"Bed a _woman._ Newborn, remember?" corrected Callie. "And for your information, I'm not a dork. I'm badass. I spent my early twenties having my hands inside corpses and helping the police catch criminals with the stuff I find in them."

"Yummy." Arizona's nose crinkled, as if she didn't spend years in Afghanistan seeing dead bodies all the time. "Why forensics, though?"

"I wanted to join the police straight out of high school but my parents had this college fund for me," explained Callie. "I felt bad for not using it, so I decided to go to college, and then I was drawn to the forensics squad so there I went. After a major homicide case, the FBI caught wind of my reputation and poached me, pretty much."

"You must have been excellent then," said Arizona.

Callie nodded slowly. "Yeah, I really was." She caught herself. "And I still am!"

"Of course," said Arizona. "Hey, you had a college fund?"

"And a trust fund, too," said Callie. "My family in Miami is loaded. That's why my dream of being in the police force seemed odd to my parents. They wanted me to help with the family business or start my own."

"But instead you became a badass."

"Pretty much." Callie's fingers started tracing patterns on Arizona's stomach. "What about you? Why did you join the Marines?" Arizona had her mouth open to reply, but Callie followed up her question with, "And don't give me the family history reason. I already know that."

Arizona inhaled deeply. "Well, it was because of my brother Timothy," she started. "He'd bring friends home in between tours and they'd keep going on about how Tim would brag to them about his 'super genius baby sister'. There was a real demand for computer scientists in the Marines at that time - heading into the dotcom boom and all - so I decided to enlist. I went into training three weeks after my college graduation. My first base was close to home in Quantico, then Germany. The war happened and Tim was deployed to Afghanistan. I joined him not long afterwards. I was excited to finally serve my country with my brother."

Callie's hand was now on the base of Arizona's residual limb. She was stroking it tenderly. "And that what happened?" she asked, eager brown eyes looking up at the academic.

Hesitation made Arizona's vocal cords constrict for a moment. "Callie."

"Shit." Callie lifted her hand. "I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me if you're not ready."

"No, keep doing that," Arizona said, almost pleadingly. "It feels good. And I think I'm ready to tell you."

"All right." Slowly, Callie resumed stroking the residual limb.

"We had just cleared the Taliban out of a whole territory that consisted of six villages, about eighty-seven thousand people all in all. The battles had virtually no civilian casualties and only a few on our side. We were waiting for the UN Peacekeepers to arrive and start reconstruction before we move on to another part of the country," Arizona recounted. "We had the afternoon off so Tim and I decided to go on a joyride on one of the jeeps - just exploring, getting to see the terrain. But then our jeep went over an undetected land mine."

Callie gasped. "Did the Taliban- ?"

"No, I was told that it was from the Soviet occupation. It had just been there all that time, waiting for some unsuspecting kid playing soccer to step on it..." she drifted off for a few seconds, then found her voice, "Anyway, Tim was really agile. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe it was just because he was a great soldier. He managed to get on top of me mid-blast, protecting me from the shrapnel. The shrapnel got him, though. Caught a few of his organs, tore a couple of arteries." She swallowed. "He was gone pretty quickly. Meanwhile, my leg was buried under car parts, and the force of the blast broke a couple of bones elsewhere. Ribs, pelvis... Teddy told me all this, of course."

"God," breathed Callie. "That must have been horrible."

Arizona sighed. Her eyes were starting to sting. "Yeah it was," she said. "Tim's always been looking out for me all my life, you know? And then this one time, he looked out for me and he ended up getting killed. The funniest thing is, it wasn't even in battle! We were awesome in battle! This, this was when we were just acting like a couple of stupid kids - which is nothing new to us, really - and suddenly he was gone."

Callie held Arizona a little tighter, and they remained in that position for a while. Arizona took the liberty of adjusting herself so that she was in a place to burrow into Callie's chest, taking in the FBI agent's smell - a combination of sweat, coconuts and herbs from the lamb chops lingered on her skin.

"I'm so sorry," Callie finally said. "But thank you for telling me."

"It's okay," said Arizona. "You're the first woman I've slept with that I've told, I would have only told someone really special to me."

"Well, I would think I was more that someone you sleep with. Like," Callie paused, "your girlfriend."

Arizona was taken aback, but she couldn't say that she disliked the word coming out of Callie's mouth. "You want to be my girlfriend, Calliope?" she asked.

"I thought I already was." Callie's eyebrows were knitted in confusion. "I mean, this thing we're doing - cooking dinner for each other at home, then going to bed, then pillow talk. Isn't this what girlfriends do?"

"That settles it then," said Arizona. "You're my girlfriend."

"And you're mine," said Callie. She reached up to capture Arizona's lips in a kiss. "Say, as my girlfriend," she said, when they finally pulled apart. "Do you want to go to dinner with me tomorrow night? Somewhere romantic?"

"Callie, I'd love to, but Isn't it going to be your turn with Sofia?" asked Arizona.

"Yeah, but Mark's eager for me to date again so I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving up another night," said Callie. "I'll find us a nice restaurant in Belltown or something."

"Oh, _Belltown_!" exclaimed Arizona. "You showing off your Torres digs?"

"Maybe," said Callie. "I heard that a well-cooked meal is an aphrodisiac."

"And you were proven right this evening," Arizona chimed in. "I don't know what your motivations are, Calliope Torres, but I am so up for dinner with you tomorrow night."

Callie giggled and let Arizona pull her in for another kiss.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here? I told you not to come see me here." A familiar voice thundered out in the hallway. Startled, and weary from being at her desk all afternoon, Arizona sat up and looked at the clock in the corner of her laptop screen. It was six-thirty, an hour before she was due to meet Callie at the restaurant.

"You weren't answering any of my phone calls," another voice said. "I was trying to find out if you've realised how much shit we're in."

"I told you that the plan was a bad idea. There are people smarter than us out there, and they are starting to outsmart us. I knew we were going to get caught. This was way in over our heads."

"So what's your master plan to keep us from going to jail?"

Okay, that's suspicious, thought Arizona. She turned her laptop off and started packing her things away. Whoever was talking outside clearly thought that they were alone in this corridor. She stood up, slung her backpack over one shoulder, and opened the door.

The voices immediately stopped. She stepped out into the corridor to see Robert Stark standing by his office door, closely standing next to a bald man with a moustache. He was tall but his shoulders were hunched over awkwardly, and he was rather thin. Arizona froze._ What the hell is Gary Clark doing talking to him?_

"Hey Dr Stark," she tried to keep her voice even, "is everything okay?"

Stark appeared momentarily stunned. "Dr Robbins." He blinked rapidly. "I didn't know that you were still here."

"I was finishing up," said Arizona. "I was just about to leave, though." She stared at the two men.

Stark's eyes shifted from Arizona to the man next to him. "Oh! Dr Robbins, this is my accountant," he said. He didn't give his name.

The man's dark, beady eyes stared at Arizona, although he realised this quite quickly and stopped, averting his gaze. _It's Gary Clark, all right_. "Nice to meet you," Arizona said hastily, "but I've got to go now." She exited the building, strapped her helmet on and rode out of the university. She found a 7-11 after a mile and a half and pulled her phone out, shakily scrolling down her contacts list to find Lexie's number.

The younger agent picked up. "Are you checking on me again?" she asked.

"Lexie! Are you still at the office?"

"Yeah, I was just packing up. What's up?"

"Is the rest of the team still there?" asked Arizona.

"Yes, they are."

"Tell them to head to my place as soon as possible. I just discovered something that impacts greatly on what we're doing, and I don't want to go to HQ because that might arouse suspicion. So direct everyone to my place, and I'll be there in about forty minutes, okay?"

"Arizona." Lexie sighed, realising that the academic won't tell her any more over the phone. "All right, I'll get everyone ready. We'll be there."

"See you," said Arizona. She hung up and dialled Alex. "Hey, we've got a problem. I need you to head to my place, key's in the usual spot, and order pizza, around six boxes. And beer, maybe. No, Karev, this isn't a drill."

* * *

**Next week: **With only a few days to go until the LAN party, the task force regroup to arrange their plans around the new revelations in the case. A slip of the tongue gets Arizona in deep trouble.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **Two more chapters to go! I'm not sure if I'm updating next week. I'm behind on a chapter, and although I'm on break from university, part of me would like to spend it being lazy and being away from the computer. I'll see how I go, though, because I'm keen to wrap this story up. This chapter is probably the hardest chapter I've ever had to write, and the next one is going to be even more difficult just because it's going to be so action-packed! Enjoy, and keep up with my updates on **wip-alterocentrist **on Tumblr if you're itching to see what happens!

* * *

There were many things strange about tonight, and the only thing that was stranger about having so many people in her home - Teddy and Arizona avoided entertaining huge groups of people there - was Sofia perched happily on Owen Hunt's lap. The otherwise gruff agent was good-naturedly feeding the toddler bite-sized pieces of cheese pizza, while Sofia leaned against his chest. Although, between offering her the fork and cooing at her, Owen was asking Arizona and Alex plenty of questions.

"Robert Stark - he's not on our suspect list." He glanced at Bailey to confirm that, and the woman responded with a nod. "Would he have any motivations to be involved in these attacks?"

"Not that we know of. I mean, he does have the technical expertise to be able to pull off a hack like this, and the teaching skills to teach a couple of other people to help him," replied Arizona. "But he's just an ambitious, slick guy, always trying to get ahead - in academia. He gets paid well, too, so I don't think he set out to rob twenty-five million dollars because he wanted to get rich."

"He's an asshole, though," said Alex. "Remember when he tried to get your tenureship presentation date moved to next semester?"

The other agents sat up, intrigued. "Why did he want to do that?" Owen asked Arizona.

Arizona momentarily hesitated. She didn't really talk to anyone in the FBI about the politics of her job at the university. "He was worried that my work with you was taking over my research hours and that I wouldn't finish my tenureship requirements in time," she said. "But thinking about it now, he might have been suspicious that the case I was helping the FBI with was a crime he was involved in, and he was trying to hinder me from investigating. Also, one time, he tried to ask Alex sneaky questions about his 'workload' with the task force."

A silence fell over the room as the team contemplated over what Arizona had just said. The next question came from Mark, and it was directed to Arizona and her protegé: "To what extent do any of your coworkers or fellow students know about your work with us?"

Arizona looked at Alex before responding to Mark. "Not much," she said. "Of course the department chair knew because Webber had to inform him, and other staff knew of it in passing, but they didn't know what we were working on."

"And we don't talk about it at work," Alex added.

"Yeah, we don't," Arizona clarified. "When Alex and I needed to work on our part of the case and we couldn't go to HQ, we had meetings here."

Owen, Derek and Mark locked eyes with one another in silent conversation. "And you're sure it was Gary Clark with him tonight?" Owen asked.

"I'm sure," said Arizona. She began recounting what she saw once more: "He's a bit over six feet, graying brown hair, moustache, awful posture… am I ringing any bells? Stark referred to him as his accountant, too."

"Do you know if he's a gamer?" asked Cristina.

"I don't know," Arizona said wearily. She tried to be ambivalent to Stark's existence before all this and didn't take note if he was attending the department LAN parties. "But as I said, they were talking about suspicious things and Stark sounded like he wasn't expecting Clark, nor did he sound like he wanted him there."

Cristina raised an eyebrow. "You're trying to gauge whether he's a willing or unwilling accomplice?"

Suddenly, Arizona leaned forward aggressively. "Look, I told you what I heard and I saw about seven times already over the course of this evening, and I haven't even taken a bite of my pizza slice," she gestured at the plate in front of her, "and I'm just fu-," she stopped, noting Sofia's presence, "very hungry and very tired. I know what I saw and this questioning is kinda doing my head in, guys."

"We don't doubt what you saw, Arizona," Derek started calmly.

"Yeah, but a little bit, you do," Arizona snapped, cutting him off. "It was a five second encounter so maybe I don't have much solid ground to stand on, but this is a potentially important development for this case so can we please just consider exploring it?"

"Arizona's right," Callie spoke up. "Everyone's tired, so let's just eat and drink and we'll look into Robert Stark first thing tomorrow, okay?" she suggested. Everyone complied.

"Hey, hang on," said Alex. "What are we meant to do around Stark? Act normal?"

Owen shrugged. The motion made his knees bounce, and Sofia giggled, which made everyone at the table smile, despite the nature of the discussion. "Yeah, I guess that's the only thing left to do. There's only a week left before the start of the LAN party, so we can't afford to compromise our investigation by freaking out now," he said.

Alex seemed satisfied with the answer, so he resumed his meal.

"Hey, Callie, don't you have that date tonight?" Arizona heard Mark ask, through a mouthful of pizza.

"Swallow, Mark," Callie chided. "And yeah, but I told her we'd reschedule since this came up."

Mark swallowed, then cringed. "Did she appreciate you rescheduling?"

Callie's eyes met with Arizona very briefly, then she replied in steady voice: "She understands the kind of work I do."

"Oh, aren't we lucky to have someone like that?" Bailey wondered aloud.

Cristina's head snapped towards her. "What? Callie's dating again?"

Arizona caught Alex looking knowingly at her. She shot him down with a glare.

"Apparently," said Mark, smirking. "I actually haven't seen this mystery girl yet, but Callie seems to be pretty excited about her. Aren't you, Torres?"

"Shut up, Mark."

"Well, I, for one, am glad that you're back on the playing field again, Callie," Lexie said brightly "You deserve to be happy." She paused. "Wait, you are happy, right?"

"I am happy," said Callie. She was grinning now, despite herself, which started an unusual - but not unwanted - sensation in the bottom of Arizona's stomach. "Really happy."

_Yup, that's it,_ thought Arizona._ Callie Torres will be the death of me_.

* * *

Only Alex remained when the night was over. As he helped Arizona load the dishwasher, he blurted out, "I know a way to get into Stark's computer."

Arizona almost dropped the plate that she was holding. "What do you mean?"

"I found a back door into the system at UDub, and I altered the code so the IT guys would never find it, and I can just keep coming back to it," Alex explained, his voice strained with hesitation. With this back door, I could hack into any computer I wanted that was connected to the UDub wifi."

"Is it going to be like remote access? Because you know that's pretty much impossible to do if he's online and on his computer, and you're trying to access it."

"No, it's not," said Alex. "He won't notice, promise."

"Sneaky. I hope it works," said Arizona. "I could take you to the disciplinary committee for this" She watched Alex's face crumple anxiously. "But it's useful, so I'll keep quiet. What do you suggest we do?"

Clearly relieved that Arizona wasn't going to get him in trouble, Alex detailed an elaborate plan to get in and out of Stark's computer without him even knowing. When he was finished, Arizona sat in silent awe for a moment, before saying, "So, how long have you got that in your head?"

"Just over pizza," said Alex. "I've never used the back door to spy on professors, even though I was sorely tempted to. Stark's a good start, though. We're trying to do good here by proving that he's involved."

"Well, let's hope we're right."

* * *

The plan was simple enough. Arizona got a hold of Stark's timetable and waited in her office with Alex. When Stark showed up as online on Alex's laptop screen, getting into his computer was easy. They navigated through his hard drive to see if he had any incriminating files on his computer. Within a folder he labeled "cLAN" was another folder labeled "Finances and Sponsorship".

"Should we check this out?" asked Alex.

Arizona bit her lip. "The name is too innocuous, though," she said.

Alex looked at her incredulously. "That's the point, Arizona," he said. "What, you think we're going to snoop around in his computer and find a folder named 'Criminal Activities'?" He snorted. "If only it were that easy." He clicked on the folder, which opened to some spreadsheets. "'Sponsorship Received'?" He hovered over the icon.

"Yeah, do it."

The spreadsheets had names of companies and venture capitalists, and the amounts they "sponsored". It all looked very familiar to Arizona. "Wait a sec," she said, firing up her laptop. "I'm just going to cross check that with the companies and VCs that have reported robberies." When she found the document she was looking for, she placed her computer alongside Alex's and scanned down the page. To no one's surprise, most of the names checked out.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Alex blew out of his mouth noisily. "It would have been way easier to create a sponsorship packet to send out to these people."

"Probably not for the amount they wanted though," Arizona murmured. "Look." She pointed at a figure on the screen. "Two million dollars from this VC. You can't ask for that kind of money too easily." She fished in her drawers for a flash drive, which she placed in Alex's hand. "Copy that file to this, and then let's look for more evidence."

Alex plugged the flash drive in. "Like what?"

"Emails, correspondence, things like that."

"All right." Alex clicked on Stark's email application. "Hey, here's a folder for LAN party correspondence." He clicked on it. "Fuck," he said, as the screen loaded. "There's a password."

Determined, Arizona set her jaw. "Give that to me," she said. She practically yanked Alex's laptop off him, then started typing furiously. "This is small potatoes, Alex. You of all people should know how to get around this."

Her protegé threw his hands up in the air. "I panicked, okay?" He watched the screen anxiously. "Have you got it?"

"Just about." Arizona chewed on her lip. "There!" She handed the laptop back to Alex. The screen displayed Stark's LAN party emails folder. She waved off Alex's look of amazement. "As I said, small potatoes."

Alex navigated through the emails, then stopped at one in particular. "Oh, holy shit," he said to Arizona. "you're gonna love this."

Arizona took one look at the emails. "Put this on the USB and go to my place to print. We'll show it to Owen tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Alex's eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, tomorrow," repeated Arizona, smiling. "I have a date tonight, and there is no way that I'm going to let the FBI would interrupt my plans again."

Alex smiled understandingly. "Go, Robbins!"

* * *

_Did I turn fourteen again?_ Arizona felt the fluttering in her stomach that she thought she had long forgotten when Callie reached across the table, placing a hand on top of Arizona's. "You look really nice tonight," the FBI agent told her with twinkling eyes. "I regret not taking you out sooner."

Arizona giggled, then kicked herself for doing so. _Robbins, you're a Marine with a PhD. Get it together!_ "Well, we're here now," she said. Callie got them a table at one of the most upscale Japanese restaurants in the city. Arizona thought that sushi, although delicious, was a little too yuppie - the TAs and the research fellows ate it all the time - but she'd eat anything if Callie was across the table from her. And besides, this wasn't the $6 plastic boxes of sushi that the TAs had for lunch. This was fancy.

"Have you tried the vegetable tempura yet?" asked Callie. She pushed a plate of starchy vegetables covered in panko - Japanese breadcrumbs - towards Arizona. "It's spot on. And it even tastes healthy, too! It's just a gift when they can do that to things that are already clearly dripping with oil."

Arizona obliged, her chopsticks already poised over a piece of sweet potato. She eagerly took it and bit off the end. "Wow," she said. "If my mom made that when I was younger, then I wouldn't have started massive fights over eating my vegetables."

Callie snorted. "You were that type of kid, huh?"

"Wouldn't eat anything that didn't look like a juicy steak or oily fried chicken," Arizona declared proudly. "Although, I would eat vegetables if they were in jambalaya."

"Jambalaya? That's a strange food to be having around military bases."

"The cook in the mess hall at the base in Japan was this man from New Orleans. His name was Pete. There was a storm and Tim and I were playing outside, and we kept going anyway. My dad was at work and my mom had a Marine wives thing, so we were expected to take care of ourselves. Pete saw us just on his way to cook dinner at the mess hall, so he had us sit in the kitchen with blankets as he cooked up some jambalaya. Best thing I ever tasted"

"That was sweet of him."

"Yeah, but I still got a cold anyway," said Arizona, laughing. Callie joined in, too.

* * *

Conversation continued until the plates were cleared. Callie footed the bill at her insistence, then they walked out to the parking lot together. Winter had arrived in Seattle. Arizona flipped her coat collar up to deflect the wind. "Do you know who you're rooming with when we go to the LAN party?" she asked Callie.

The taller lady raised an eyebrow. "Are you even asking that question? Lexie told me Bailey put the two of us together because, and I quote, we 'seem like good friends'." She chuckled.

"Good."

"Good?" asked Callie.

"Yeah." Arizona took a step closer, reducing the distance between her and Callie.

Callie took the initiative to take her by the lapels and kiss her. Her hands encircled Arizona's waist and pulled her closer so that they were pressed up against each other.

Arizona sucked on Callie's bottom lip and played with the ends of her hair. She had been hungry for this all night. Yes, sushi was good, but Callie was better. When they finally pulled away, she was breathless.

Callie was smirking, obviously smug that she had that effect on Arizona. "You like grabbing me by the lapels, so I thought I'd try it out."

"And?"

"That's hot, Robbins. I can see why you think you're a real charmer pulling that move." They were by Callie's T-Bird now. She unlocked the doors and opened the passenger door for Arizona. "But I'm the chivalrous one."

"You are." Arizona kissed Callie before getting in the car. "And I'll let you have that."

Callie shut her door and got in the driver's seat. "So, your place or mine?"

"It's been lovely, Callie, but I have a long day tomorrow," Arizona said apologetically. "Can you just drive me home? I promise to make it up to you."

"All right." Callie smiled at Arizona. "It's okay, honestly. We've all been busy, and stressed, and we're going to have a hotel room just to ourselves at the end of this week…" Her voice trailed off suggestively.

Arizona cocked her head inquiringly. She was enjoying this. "Is it just me or are you horny?"

Callie pulled out of the parking lot. "Hey, I might be," she said. "You're poking a bear, Robbins. But to emphasise my chivalry, I'm going to take you home." At a red light, she leaned over to leave a lingering kiss on Arizona's cheek.

The fluttering in Arizona's stomach escalated.

* * *

A startled Owen Hunt looked up after Arizona slapped a two sheets of paper, stapled together, on his desk and slid towards him._ I wish that was heavier so this situation would carry more gravitas_, she thought, before declaring, "Proof."

"Proof of what?" asked Owen.

"Proof that Stark's working with the Combat Tyrants," said Alex, who was standing next to her.

"The first page," Arizona's voice had taken on her didactic tone, "shows a spreadsheet with VCs and companies with the money that the Combat Tyrants have received from them. If you see the names and the figures on that sheet, it looks very similar to this." She presented another sheet of paper with the names of companies and VCs that lost money to the Combat Tyrants.

"And the second page?"

Alex stepped forward and flipped it for the bemused FBI agent. "This a series of very short emails from Gary Clark. There were no replies. Clark mentioned you and Shepherd by name. Check out the timestamp."

Owen obliged. "This was during the interview," he said in amazement. "You mean this was what he was sending on his phone under the desk?"

Alex nodded. "Most likely."

"Well, this certainly implicates Stark in the crime. Wait," Owen's expression resumed its usual severity, "how did you guys get this?"

Alex backed up and turned to look at Arizona, who was staring right back at him. He turned back to Owen and stammered, "I think it's best if Arizona and I just keep that to ourselves."

"Why?" Owen asked. "You know surveillance gathered like this needs a warrant."

"Precisely why we want it to remain a secret," said Arizona.

"You guys hacked into his computer, didn't you?" said Owen. When the two academics didn't reply, he lunged forward in his chair. "Oh god, you did! We can't use this evidence then. We have to find something else to prove his involvement. And since we don't know if he's gonna be at the LAN party, he might get off scot free."

"We can get a warrant to search his office. We know that he's involved in this, so we know what to look for," said Arizona.

Owen shook his head. "We don't have a reason to search him. We have no idea how he's linked with Clark or the other suspects, so we can't do anything like that," he said. "And now that we know that he's aware of your work with the FBI, we're going to need a new plan."

"A new plan?"

"Yeah." Owen looked at his watch. "I called for a meeting in thirty minutes," he told them. "And it's gonna be a long one."

* * *

Derek stood in front of the room facilitating the meeting. "It's four days until the LAN party," he said. "And in light of Arizona's colleague's possible involvement with the suspects, our circumstances have changed. The undercover team has to go in that convention centre aware that people may be expecting them."

"We know that we're booked in the hotel across from the convention centre," explained Bailey. "It was the easiest option because the organisers clearly got a special rate for the participants. Just to recap: our cover is going to be that we've come up from California. And Derek, who's on can duty?"

"Can duty?" asked Alex.

"We've decided to put in hearing devices on us when we're on the floor," said Bailey. "That means someone has to be in an undercover control van at all times listening in."

"Mark, Owen and I will take shifts accompanied by junior agents," replied Derek. "Alex, we'll outfit you with a two-way communications device. You can be our man on the floor."

"Sweet, I'm like going to be some secret agent or something," Alex said enthusiastically.

"Don't forget your role though," said Derek. "You need to make sure that our agents' team gets noticed so they could lead us to the suspects." Alex had mentioned earlier on in the investigation that standout teams get the chance to play in a private LAN with the Combat Tyrants themselves.

"Even if you have to throw the game, Alex," reminded Owen.

Arizona looked at her silent student, fully aware that Alex had been training hard for this party, and had been working double shifts at the library just so he could afford the application fee. "Alex?"

Alex's lips were pursed determinedly. "Yeah, I understand," he finally said, nodding. "And when you guys get an invite to the LAN with them? What happens?"

The agents exchanged looks, seemingly at a lost with this. "We then try to smoke them out," Cristina told Alex in a distracted voice, as if she didn't really know what she was saying. "I think we just need to play this by ear. We've only met with Clark, and as far as we know, Stark isn't going to be playing, so this group is largely unpredictable to us. They should be harmless, though."

"Really." Arizona leaned back in her seat. "What makes you think that?"

"They robbed VCs through computers, Arizona," Cristina commented dismissively. "What I'm saying is that I don't think they're going to pull a gun on anyone."

"Hang on," Mark spoke up. "We can't just assume that they're not going to do that."

Callie added to this: "We have to believe that they're perfectly capable of being violent. Equal opportunity criminalism, right?"

"Well, are we going to go in there armed or not?" Cristina shot back.

Derek craned his neck to address the youngest agent in the room. "Lexie, did you look into the security at the convention centre?"

Lexie nodded. "It's minimal, we can definitely sneak firearms in," she said.

_This is sounding more and more like a bank robbery than a sting_, Arizona thought. But they couldn't skip precautions where they could possibly be needed. _What if one of them pulls a gun on Callie or Alex?_ "I want a gun, too," she told Owen directly. "I've got a gun permit, I'm all checked out for that."

"Arizona." Callie and Alex said in unison. Arizona watched them make brief eye contact, with Callie looking away. A hint of a blush was creeping on her cheeks.

"I'm hesitant," said Derek, while Owen remained silent. "We can't possibly arm a civilian. Really, I'm against arming anyone on this task force during the sting."

"I'm not just a civilian, though," Arizona insisted. "I'm a Marine, and I can hold my own with a handgun." She looked at Owen again, but she really didn't want to plead. "Come on."

"Only when you make it in the that room with the suspects," Owen finally said. "I'll get someone to take you to the can before that so you can get strapped up. In fact," he addressed the other women in the room, "that goes for all of you. I don't want any guns on anyone until we're sure that we're going to be face to face with our suspects." He turned to Derek and Mark. "Does that sound like a reasonable suggestion?"

"Yeah, I'm for it," said Mark.

"All right," said Derek. He shook his head. "I really didn't want guns to be brought into this."

"No choice, Derek," Mark told him gently. "This is our job. We catch criminals, and sometimes criminals are dangerous. It would be a great risk to bring them in there unarmed. They don't have to pull the guns out at all, but it would just be nice to have them there."

"We hope not to have to use them at all," said Owen. "Let's pray for a quick and easy surrender."

Cristina snorted. "I prefer the action."

Mark snorted right back at her. "Then you're going to be the one filling out the paperwork afterwards, Yang."

* * *

Arizona was snuggled up on the couch with Callie, watching an action movie that Callie chose. Apparently, it was the only thing in her DVD collection that didn't involve singing or Disney or both. Even if Arizona was a hardcore Disney fan, she let Callie choose the movie. _This time around, at least_. Arizona had no idea why she allowed herself to plan potential future dates with Callie.

When the credits rolled, Callie stood up to get them glasses of water. She sat down next to Arizona. "Tonight was really nice," she told the blonde. "Thanks for coming over."

"Hey, we needed a night to relax before the big moment," said Arizona. They were checking into the hotel tomorrow afternoon and the LAN party was opening that evening. She nodded at a foil package on Callie's kitchen counter. "What's with the beans?"

Callie turned to look at the unopened pack of coffee beans. "I bought extra strong," she said. "I heard that these things could go on all night, and I plan to work double shifts." She winked suggestively.

Arizona gently pushed Callie. "You are insufferable!" she said. "Are we together because we're just impossibly horny? Is this the revival of our pubescent years?"

"Girl," Callie said in husky tones, "the sex wouldn't be this good if we were pubescent." Her expression turned serious. "But to answer your first question, I do genuinely like you, you know. Like, really, really like you."

"Really now?"

"Hell yeah," said Callie. "When you first came into that office, I thought you were sexy. Mark told me that you were gay and I got hopeful."

"I thought you were sexy, too but, Mark told us that you were engaged," said Arizona.

"I was," said Callie. "Did that stop you from wanting me?"

"I try to be a good person so I wasn't going to try break you and Erica up - although I did secretly want to, I suppose," admitted Arizona. "It was so hard to stay away from you, but I didn't think it was okay to come close. Especially after Teddy told me that Erica left town."

Callie's body jerked up rigidly. "Teddy told you? I thought I told you."

_Shit_, Arizona thought. "That's right, you did," she said, but she knew it was unconvincing.

"No, you just told me that Teddy told you," said Callie. "Which means you already knew when you told me."

"Callie."

"Please don't lie to me."

Arizona gulped. This night was going to end badly. "I did know about Erica leaving, and yes, Teddy did tell me," she said. "Teddy helped her pack up her stuff and leave town, but Teddy didn't tell me where she was going. I don't think she knew either."

Callie's voice was tight. "When did she tell you?"

"Two weeks before you told me that you found out she left."

"You kept it from me for_ two weeks_?" Callie asked incredulously. "I thought you cared about me, Arizona."

"I do!" exclaimed Arizona.

"I think you need to go," Callie said firmly. "I'll call you a cab, then I'm going to my bedroom and you wait here."

"Callie-"

"No. I don't want to be around you right now," Callie cut her off. She picked up the phone and dialled a number, asking for a cab to her apartment. When she hung up, she looked at Arizona, but just barely. "It's coming in fifteen minutes, and the driver will buzz at the door. You know your way out." She entered her bedroom and slammed the door shut.

Defeated, Arizona leaned back against the couch._ And we're supposed to be sharing a room tomorrow night_, she remembered, exhaling loudly in frustration. _Great going, Robbins_.

* * *

**Next Chapter: **The team is having trouble meshing at the LAN party because of the obvious tension between Callie and Arizona. Will they pull themselves together in time to prove that they're worthy of taking on the Combat Tyrants?


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **I'm sorry that this chapter is late, and that the next one - the finale - will be, too. I was on break and I was juggling different things at once, and this is definitely the hardest chapter I've ever had to write. Thank you anyway for all your feedback, and I sincerely mean it when I say that I'm going to miss updating this story. It's been a good journey, folks, and I hope my denouement next week will do it justice!

* * *

The first games of cLAN began at eight in the evening. Besides the undercover FBI team, there were only two other all-women teams, and the rest were either all-men or mixed, but still had a majority of men. The convention centre began to get loud - and smelly - very quickly.

Four hours in, the five women were huddled together, pressing keys frantically as they dodged fire coming from all directions. They were playing against three other teams, and the objective was simple: kill anyone that doesn't have the same colour uniform as you in the space of half an hour. Unfortunately, their clan wasn't faring so well, and there were only five minutes left.

Cristina, who had successfully taken down three opponents with a hand grenade, took a peek at the radar on the corner of Arizona's screen. "Robbins, I think a sniper is on you."

"Eyes on the screen, Yang." Arizona didn't even look at her. "How did you glean that from peeking at my radar?"

Cristina's gaze returned to her screen, but she continued talking, "Because there seems to be an enemy approximately where the gas tank is located, and I bet my bottom dollar that someone is up there right now playing sharpshooter."

"I think we get into that team formation we talked about then," said Arizona. The others looked hesitant. "Come on, let's group together and attack that way. It'll get us the most kills in the shortest time possible, and it means that if any of us get hit by the sniper, the other team members can end that guy for like, fifteen seconds while we regroup."

"Did everyone hear that?" Cristina asked everyone else, even if they were all wearing headsets so they could hear each other. There were affirmatives from Lexie and Bailey. "Torres, you heard that?"

Callie simply grunted.

Arizona rolled her eyes. Maybe it was her inner Marine in combat, but she just wished that Callie would just forget about their fight and focus on the sting. "Okay, let's do it then. Ready?"

Affirmations again, and Callie's was a little clearer this time, as Cristina was looking straight at her.

Arizona looked at her screen and saw the other women bunched around her, then she looked Cristina and nodded. "Let's charge!" she told them. And off they went, firing in all directions, racking up kills as they went.

_Great, we're getting a good lead_, Arizona thought. Gritting her teeth, she led the team into a warehouse, not bothering to look at her radar.

"Uhm, Arizona, that might not be a good idea," said Callie.

"Just follow my lead, Torres!"

"Arizona," Lexie spoke up too, having glanced at her radar. "We need to back down."

Arizona stubbornly charged anyway. Because the rule they agreed upon during these formations was "leave no woman behind", the others followed after her. And that's when several grenades were thrown in their direction. Arizona's screen dimmed as the game reloaded so she could respawn.

"Now, how the_ fuck_ did that happen?" Bailey's rare use of an expletive caught everyone's attention.

Cristina was staring at her dimmed screen, stunned. "We just walked into an ambush."

"You should have listened to me," Callie growled.

They played in silence after they had all respawned until the buzzer sounded, signalling the end of the game. Their clan, as expected, was at the bottom of the leaderboard. "Oh well, guys. Shit happens," said Arizona, sighing.

"We can't keep coming last forever, Arizona," said Lexie. "We need to start winning or else this plan isn't going to work."

Arizona sighed again. She tugged off her headset and began to pack her laptop up. "I'm turning in for the night," she said, standing up after stuffing her gear in a bag. "The first set of games start at midday tomorrow." Without waiting for a response, she weaved her way to the exit through the desks._ I better get a shower and some alone time before Callie gets back_.

* * *

Callie was sitting on her bed when Arizona limped from the bathroom in just a towel. She fought the urge to roll her eyes as she mentally cursed her fate. _Clearly I lucked out_. She kept her body as rigid as possible as she dug into her suitcase for clothes. While her back was turned, Callie muttered something inaudible.

Arizona pulled a baggy UDub shirt on and shimmied into some underwear before turning around, holding onto her bed for support, dropping the towel as she demanded, "What was that?"

"The gap between us and the clan above us was only six kills, did you know that? If you had listened to me we would have been able to bump ourselves up the leaderboard," Callie said.

"Well, I don't think I'm the only one with listening problems here. Maybe if you had heard me out then we wouldn't be in this position right now," snapped Arizona.

Callie was taken aback with the change of subject. "You're the one who decided to keep it from me, Arizona. God knows why. You were just probably waiting to swoop in and be my knight in shining armour, weren't you?"

"You didn't seem like you objected to that."

"That's when I thought you weren't in on it, Arizona."

"In on what?"

"In on the plans of my fiancée who just decided to leave town without telling me!"

"I wasn't in on it!" Arizona told her. "Teddy told me the day after she helped Erica move her things across town, and she made me promise not to tell anyone."

"Why?"

"Because it wasn't my place to tell," said Arizona. "We're Marines, Callie. We keep each other's secrets to the death because we're a united group. Teddy and I, we have a bond."

"Don't pull that Marine shit on me!" Callie seemed to relish at Arizona's cringing response. "We've told each other things. We have a bond, too. We know stories about each other's pasts, and I was just starting to think that I could actually tell you some more stories; stories that not many people have heard. Yet you didn't think to tell me, 'Oh Callie, I knew about Erica leaving town before you did,'" the pitch of her voice raised as she mimicked Arizona, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you as soon as I found out. But I'm telling you now because_ I care about you_!'" She spat those words out. "Were you planning to keep this a secret forever?"

_I didn't think it needed to be brought up at all, so does that count as a yes?_ But what Arizona said was, "Calliope-"

"Don't 'Calliope' me." Callie stood up abruptly and marched towards the door, slamming it shut as she left.

* * *

It was ten in the morning when Arizona roused herself. Across the room, Callie's bed was made. She stood up and slowly walked towards it on her one leg, then gingerly touched the mattress. There was still an imprint there, so she knew that Callie did return last night to get some sleep. Arizona was sorely tempted to snuggle close to the pillows, which smelt like Callie's coconut shampoo, when a knock on the door made her freeze.

She opened it to Alex's ashen face. Despite his tired appearance, his eyes were as alert as ever. Arizona suspected that it was caused by the styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand. "Good morning," he said, completely ignoring the fact that Arizona was only in a t-shirt and a pair of boyshorts. He offered a second styrofoam cup to her. "I thought you'd want some before you started playing again."

Arizona accepted it. "Thanks." She took a sip._ Just the way I like it._ "So what brings you here?"

"Can I come in?" asked Alex. He saw the hesitation in Arizona's face. "I know Torres isn't up here, I ran into her at breakfast downstairs and she said you were still here. She didn't look too happy hearing your name."

Arizona stepped aside to let Alex in. He walked into the room and sat down on the armchair next the window. "So, you and Torres had a lovers' quarrel?"

"I don't want to talk about it. The most important thing right now is getting the sting right."

"If you two aren't getting along then we don't have the right factors in place to get the sting right, Arizona," Alex told her calmly. "You guys are real close to the bottom of the overall leaderboard. That's not even close to pinging the Combat Tyrants' radar. You know what you have to do."

"I've just never met someone so irrational before," said Arizona. "I thought you were the height of it, but she had to come along."

"God, Robbins." Alex blew out slowly. "You need to stop expecting people to react the way you want them to when you say something. I don't know what happened between you and Torres but I know you have a habit of treating people like their pieces of software, like you can read their code and you can tinker it so they can feel about something the way you want them to."

Not appreciating the tongue-lashing she was receiving from her student, Arizona exclaimed, "I do not!"

"You do, though! You do it to me!" Alex spoke over her. "And maybe I put up with it because I kind of like someone expecting the best from me. I don't mind it as much as I used to when we first met, and hey, it's kinda weird when you don't do it. But Callie Torres? She never seemed like the sort of person to take that from someone. She doesn't get it. You have to let her be mad at you because that's what she knows to do, and it's a bad idea to try to get her accustomed to your weird ass habits when obviously what you've done has hurt her."

Arizona didn't speak for a moment. She sat on the end of her bed, staring at the floor for a few seconds. She reached for her prosthetic leg and fastened it before looking up and making eye contact with Alex. "Since when did you give speeches like that?"

He smiled ruefully. "I learned from the best," he admitted.

"How did you know I was the one who messed it up?"

"You treat women only marginally better than I do," Alex replied, indicating the amount using his thumb and forefinger. Ignoring Arizona's glare, he kept on talking: "Also, if Torres was the one in the wrong, she'd be the one staying up here, and you'd be the one holding your head up high during breakfast, hoping that no one would notice that you're spreading full-fat butter on your bagel."

"I _always_ spread full-fat butter on my bagel. There is no other way." Arizona crossed her arms.

Alex stood up and tossed his empty coffee cup in the trash can. "I'm off. You should start getting ready so you can think up of a winning strategy for today," he told Arizona. "I hope I've given you something to think about."

Arizona watched him walk to the door. "The guys in the can put you up to this, didn't they?"

He stopped in his tracks and pulled a small electronic device out of his pocket. "You forgot that you have microphones on you. They heard everything last night. Including what happened in the hotel room." He pressed a button on a device, put the earpiece in and clipped the microphone under the neck of his t-shirt.

"Shit! Fuck!" Arizona's mouth was agape. "I completely forgot about that." _The other people on the team didn't even know that Callie and I were together!_

"Shit happens, Robbins," said Alex, shrugging. "Just remember to turn it off next time you turn in for the night." He turned to leave, but the door opened, so he took a step backwards.

Callie was standing in the doorway. "Alex," she said evenly. "What are you doing here?"

"I just went to wake Robbins up so she can get ready to take on the day," Alex said brightly, jerking his thumb towards Arizona, who had since jumped up from her bed since Callie's arrival. "How was breakfast?" Alex asked Callie, as if the tension in the room wasn't so palpable.

"The bagels were good," said Callie. "Even better on the government's dime."

Alex shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well, I'm gonna hurry on and grab some for me," he said. He hastily weaved around the FBI agent to get out the door, leaving Arizona and Callie standing far apart, staring at each other.

_She must be really mad_, Arizona thought, her eyes wandering over Callie's face,_ she's oblivious to the fact that I'm just in my underwear_.

"The team wanted to ask if you wanted to sign on for the twelve-thirty LAN," Callie said.

_Appeasement is the way to go_. Arizona tried to flash her best smile at Callie. "Sure, let's go for it!"

* * *

The team underwent a huge turnaround that morning, rallying hard to climb the leaderboard. They won or came second in all of their LANs, and they were starting to seem invincible. At five o'clock, Cristina determined that they were high enough in the leaderboard to take a break.

They were enjoying pizza and soda - their first substantial meal after breakfast - when the leaderboard reshuffled itself. "Hey," Lexie said, pointing it out to the others. "We're coming fourth."

Arizona craned her neck to look at it. "Shit, that was fast. Good work, team."

"Yeah, we're really starting to mesh together. It's kinda strange," Bailey said.

Arizona couldn't help noticing the suspicious glances that she gave her and Callie.

"But it's kinda awesome, right?" she asked her.

"Sure," said Bailey. "So, what's the significance of being fourth on that board?"

As if on cue, a PA announcement boomed across the convention centre: "The leaderboard is now frozen. The top five teams on the leaderboard will compete in a special one-hour LAN at nine-thirty PM, and the winner will get to LAN against the Combat Tyrants tomorrow. All other LANs will still be running as usual, except that points earned from these do not count towards the leaderboard. Enjoy!"

No one reacted for a few seconds, until: "Awesome!" Cristina yelled out in jubilation. She looked at the stunned faces of her teammates. "What? I'm just playing the part," she said in a lower voice.

Callie looked at Bailey. "Yeah, right," she said out of the corner of her mouth. "Yang's a total nerd, isn't she?"

Bailey nodded. "The nerdiest of the nerds."

Cristina glared at the two women. "Bailey, you once had to skip out on a work dinner because you wanted to attend a_ Star Wars_ movie marathon at the _public library_. You said it was just the original series, because the prequel trilogy isn't worth your cheapest action figure" She turned to Callie. "And Torres, you're tagged in photos of your _high school chemistry club_ on Facebook. You're the one holding the placard with the club name so I'm going to make an educated guess and say that you were president."

The two women seethed at Cristina while Lexie clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to hold back the giggles. Admittedly, Arizona felt like laughing, too. She was about to, unrestrainedly, when a hand snatched a pizza piece from the box in front of her. "Hey!" She whirled around, half-expecting it to be some hungry college kid.

"Calm down, Robbins. I've only had lunch." It was Alex._ Close enough. PhD student status notwithstanding, he is still a hungry college kid_. "Great going on the leaderboard, huh?"

Arizona looked at him. "Did you place too?"

Alex nodded, his mouth clamped around the pizza slice. "We're coming in second," he said with a full mouth, spraying pieces of pizza everywhere. When he saw the women glaring, he chewed then swallowed. "The guys are ecstatic. But they're going to kill me when I throw the game."

Bailey's eyes widened. "Karev, you probably shouldn't have said that so loud."

"You're still up for that, right?" Arizona tried to read his face to no avail. She knew that Alex must have paid around a thousand dollars, give or take, to prepare for the LAN party, and although the FBI took care of his accommodation fees, that kind of money wasn't usually available to him.

He lifted a finger, opting to finish his pizza before answering. When this was done, he said, "Of course." He shrugged. "We gotta do what we gotta do. And there will be other LANs that aren't funded by dirty money. We'll win those ones." With that, he walked off to reenter the crowd of gamers.

"Is he gonna be okay?" asked Lexie.

Arizona didn't know what to say. _It seems like such an insignificant thing for us to worry about but no one comes here to throw games_. "He's Karev," she finally said. "He'll bounce back."

* * *

There were ten minutes left on the clock and they were in second place to Alex's group when all their screens dimmed and play was suspended. For a good minute and a half, gamers frantically yelled at each other, desperate to know what was going on. Finally, the voice over the PA boomed: "Sudden death round! For the last ten minutes, only the clans in first and second place will be able to compete for the prize of a thirty-minute LAN with the Combat Tyrants! Other competitors will be able to stay where they are and compete in an alternate game."

"That's awfully convenient," Cristina told Arizona out of the corner of her mouth.

We're just lucky, I suppose. Arizona thought, but didn't respond out loud. Instead, she made eye contact with Alex and they shared nods. The PA came on again. "Your game starts," a beat, "now."

"All right, guys." Arizona watched her screen loading the new game. "I'll have Yang on sniper, please," Cristina nodded. "Everyone else following me."

"Watch your radars," Callie reminded everyone. Arizona looked at her gratefully. Her deep brown eyes returned to her screen.

With the four in a huddle and Cristina assuming a position on a structure where she was able to see everyone, they maneuvered through the course. "Lure them to that open space over there," Cristina told the others. She frowned when Callie gasped, her screen dimming as she waited to respawn. "And don't die on the way," she added pointedly.

The game continued and their opponents gained a six kill lead on them with two minutes to go. Bailey and Lexie closed it down to a three kill lead. "We need you to get a handle on that sniper, Cristina," Arizona said as she fired at someone who was returning the same favour.

"I am!" Cristina ran a hand through her hair. "They know I'm up here though. They're careful."

"One minute and twenty, guys," Lexie announced.

"Shit." Arizona shut her eyes tight, trying to find a solution to close the lead and overtake the other team. When she opened them, she saw Alex looking straight at her. Please get yourself killed, she silently pleaded with him, but he looked away before Arizona could discern if he got the message. "Any of you carrying a RPG?" she asked her teammates.

"I am," said Callie.

Arizona noted Callie's location on her radar. "Can you take it to Yang? Grey, Bailey, we're gonna go cover her." While Callie made her way to the rooftop of the building that Cristina was on, Arizona, Lexie and Bailey fired at their opponents, making sure they got adequate cover to recuperate in between shots. They couldn't afford to increase the opponents' kill counts.

"I got the RPG!" Cristina declared. She trained it on her screen.

"Ten seconds!" Lexie exclaimed.

Arizona watched Alex lead his teammates to a section of the map. Alex looked at her again and nodded. "Shoot it to where the red clumps on your radar are, Yang," she told Cristina.

Cristina bit her lip, pressed a few buttons on her laptop. "And…" she held her breath. "Fire."

And then it was all over.

They could hear the collective groan emanating from where Alex's clan was. Arizona sat back in her chair, watching the leaderboard on the screen. They were right on top. "We did it, guys."

Bailey's lips were pursed as she removed her headset. "Well, that's the hard part done."

* * *

"You're saying that we actually have to game with them? We can't just get in that room and flash our badges and be like, 'You fuckers didn't think you were gonna get away with it, did you?'" Callie demanded in a manner so aggressively that it made the typically jovial Derek Shepherd cringe on the other side of the screen.

They were on Skype with Derek, who was on duty in the control van, and Owen, who came along anyway, as a final briefing before tomorrow. "We're trying to avoid a standoff," said Owen.

"Meh, I like Torres's idea." Cristina folded her arms. "I don't like talking."

"Well, what we've been listening to says otherwise," said Owen.

This made Arizona snort. Cristina was the queen of trash talk. "Hang on." She remembered something. "When are we getting our guns?"

Since she was offscreen, the agents were momentarily confused. "That was Robbins, wasn't it?" she heard Derek ask. Then Owen grunted in affirmation. "Robbins? We're sending Wilson and Avery up with them right now," Derek said.

"So when do we draw the guns?" asked Lexie. Arizona could tell that the young agent was nervous about handling weapons, since she was rarely ever on the field.

"You only draw guns when they do," said Derek. "Otherwise, show your badge and let Bailey body check them."

Bailey, considerate of the younger woman's feelings, scoffed exaggeratedly. "Shepherd, a body check from me would kill those guys. Make Yang do it."

Lexie visibly relaxed while the others laughed. "It's the home stretch, team," said Derek. "I'd say go out with a bang, but we all want this to go as smoothly as possible." He heard Cristina snort offscreen. "Yes, Cristina, even you."

* * *

Arizona had no idea how to wear a shoulder holster. She shot pistols in the Marines, but they were of the smaller variety that were on hip holsters. If she was being honest, she did away with it in favour of the knife strapped to her shin and her trusty assault rifle.

She looked at herself in the bureau mirror. There was something awkward about how the pistol rested on her ribcage. Her fussing was interrupted by the sound of the bathroom doorknob rattling._ Shit, I can't let Callie see me like this._ As she made a final attempt to fix up the holster, the bathroom door opened and Callie emerged, fully dressed.

"What the hell are you doing with that holster?" Callie asked. She looked amused.

_Goddamit_. "I- I was trying to put it on," Arizona stammered. "Rusty."

Callie stood behind her and Arizona could breathe in the smell of coconuts wafting from the FBI agent's damp hair. "It's like this." She adjusted the straps on the holster so they fit Arizona securely. "You don't have to lie, you know. Everyone knows that they don't wear shoulder holsters in the Marines."

Arizona let out an embarrassed laugh. "Yeah…" she said. She kicked herself for being so speechless. She blamed it on being keenly aware of Callie's fingertips still lingering on her sides. Who wouldn't be speechless? "Callio-," she started to say, but stopped herself.

Callie blinked rapidly, but let it slide. Instead, she picked up her own shoulder holster and put it on effortlessly. "You think we'll get 'em today?"

The academic examined herself in the mirror. "We have the one shot." She picked up her jacket and put it on, then admired the lack of lines the holster made underneath it. _I look badass_, she decided. "Let's go?"

"Uhm, Arizona." Callie bit her lip to conceal a smile. "You forgot something."

"What?" _Is there something stuck in my teeth? I thought my hair looked fine._

"You wanna go in there with a useless paperweight?" Callie opened her hand to reveal her gun's magazine.

* * *

The LAN was set to begin at two-thirty in the afternoon, so the team had a long brunch and strategy meeting at the hotel beforehand. They didn't talk to so much about the game, but how they were going to steer the talk from the game to the fact that the LAN party was funded by stolen money, and how some of this stolen money has made their way into the clan members' own pockets.

Alex had casually walked by their table during their lunch. "I just came back from the can," he said, sitting down at a free chair next to Lexie. He pulled some papers out of his jacket pocket and handed them to Bailey. "Mark wanted me to give you this."

Arizona had leaned over, trying to see what Bailey was reading.

"I got the names of the Combat Tyrants and had Sloan check on their financial transactions over the last three months," Alex had explained. "They've been busy." He pointed at a line on the paper. "Check that out. A Robert Stark purchased a new car for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

"What the fuck." Arizona stabbed at her hash brown. "Let's not be too gung-ho, then. I want to have the satisfaction of getting these people to confess."

So now they stood outside the room where they were going to have the LAN, waiting to be let in. Arizona had began chewing on her lip anxiously. She shifted her weight from her prosthetic to her leg when someone grasped her wrist gently.

It was Callie. "Hey, it'll be all right. It'll be over quickly."

"It better be." Arizona attempted to put on her usual cocky front, but the weight of the gun on her left ribcage was making her jumpy.

The door opened. A bearded, heavyset man in his late thirties opened the door. Arizona recognised him from the suspect list at Tommy Moskovitz. "You gals ready?" he asked cheerfully.

Arizona felt Callie remove her grip on her wrist. "Yeah," she said.

Moskovitz led them inside the room. On the other side was a window overlooking the entire convention centre's ground floor, which was bustling with gamers and illuminated with screens. One half of the large table in the room already had whirring laptops set up. Moskovitz gave nods to his four other teammates in the room. Arizona noticed that Gary Clark was one of them, and although he was the supposed leader, he was trying to make himself scarce. _He probably recognises me_. Stark, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"We'll give you ten minutes to set everything up," Moskovitz told them. "Tell me if you need any spare powerboards."

"So," Callie started unpacking her computer. "This has been an awesome LAN. Kudos to you guys for organising it."

Arizona was busy unpacking as well, but she couldn't help looking up when she heard the bite in the agent's voice. The taller woman sounded casual, but Arizona knew by her squared shoulders and tense jaw that she was out for blood. _What the hell is she playing at?_

"Tell me something," Callie continued. "How did you manage to pay for all this?"

"Sponsorship, of course," Moskovitz replied easily.

"You didn't have many sponsors on the back of the schedule." Callie was ignoring the glares she was receiving from the other agents, and from Arizona. "You must have needed a lot of money to pull this off."

"Not much, really," another one of the Combat Tyrants said. They were starting to give each other uncomfortable looks, and only Gary Clark seemed unfazed by it all.

Callie was about to open her mouth, but Lexie spoke first: "Okay, we're finished setting up."

Cristina brushed past Callie to get to her seat, and Arizona heard her hiss: "What the_ hell_ do you think you're doing, Torres?"

Arizona sat down and put her headset on as Moskovitz started explaining the rules. Thirty minutes, friendly fire setting turned off, don't hang out in spawn spots. And then the computer counted them down to the beginning of the game.

The Combat Tyrants were a silent but deadly force. They killed more quickly and more efficiently than any of their past opponents, and they did it with little talk between them. For long stretches of time, they only exchanged grunts and single-word exchanges. Arizona's team, on the other hand, would have been making a spectacle of themselves. Profanity was being thrown left and right.

During a systematic blitz killing of three of the members, Callie - who was waiting to respawn - spoke. "Hey, Gary, right?"

Clark's eyes snapped abruptly from his laptop screen. Arizona felt herself break into a sweat. _Fuck, don't do this right now, Callie_.

"Yeah…" Clark said slowly. "How do you know my name?"

Callie didn't answer. "Nice watch," she said. "That's Rolex's new line?"

"Tag Heuer," Clark corrected self-consciously. "Why do you ask?"

"Focus on the game, Clark," Moskowitz snapped.

He focused his eyes back on his screen. But then he looked at Callie again. "How do you know my name?"

Callie blinked. "Doesn't everyone know your name? You being the leader of the Combat Tyrants and all?"

"My name isn't anywhere publicly. I'm known by my gamer handle," Clark insisted.

"Gary," Moskowitz said. "The game, please."

But Clark wasn't no longer listening to his teammate. "Seriously, how do you know my name?" he asked indignantly.

"I heard people use it around the convention centre," said Callie. Even if she was fibbing to defuse the man, her posture was still on guard. "Think nothing of it, if you're really that insecure of people knowing your real name."

"You're a fed, aren't you?" Clark's question was sharp and slightly menacing. "You're all feds! I should have known as soon as you walked in the room."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Callie was smirking. "We're not feds!"

"Yes, you are!" Clark grew increasingly frantic. "I should have known." He turned on Arizona. "I know you. You work at the university with Stark! Arizona Robbins, right? The FBI consultant?"

Arizona didn't bother denying it. "Where's Stark? Is he here?"

"I knew it." The game had stopped now; it was just the ten people in the room staring at each other. "Have you come to arrest us?"

"Only if there's something to arrest you for," said Callie. Arizona glared at her. "Is there something to arrest you for, Gary Clark? Like, I don't know, a series of robberies amounting to about forty million?"

"_Stop talking, bitch!_" Clark stood up, reached inside his jacket and pulled out a revolver, training it at Callie. Arizona blood went cold.

Upon hearing a loud crack, she dived and knocked Callie to the ground, shielding her. When she landed, there was a sudden weight on her back. And from the ground, she was just an observer. Protecting Callie was her first objective. She watched Bailey and Cristina draw their guns. She watched Clark stand his ground - although he was shaking - as the other put their hands up in surrender. She watched Lexie tackle Clark out of nowhere, knocking his gun out of reach. Then there were boots thundering in. Mark's voice: "FBI! Freeze!" He was accompanied by Owen and the young agent Avery.

Knowing that they have backup, Arizona knew it was safe to move again, but the heaviness on her body restricted her mobility. "Calliope, are you okay?" She tried her best to check Callie for injuries by running her hands lightly where she could on the taller woman's body. But then she felt something warm and sticky trickling on her own jacket._ I've been shot._

"Oh my god." Cristina ran over and pushed something off Arizona. Her shoulders felt lighter, and suddenly there was no pain, except in her knee from when she fell.

"I think I'm fine, guys," said Arizona. But that didn't explain the blood.

Callie sat up, then gasped. "It's not you, Arizona," she said. When the blonde looked at her confusedly, she placed her hands on her shoulders and steered her to look at what - _who_ - was behind her.

"Fuck!" Arizona let out a strangled sob. "Alex!" She stroked his hair. He lay there, his face screwed up in pain, blood blossoming on the side of his shirt.

"Let me check on him," Callie said gently, even though she was practically lifting Arizona by the arms and moving him aside. "Yang, can you call an ambulance?" Cristina nodded and pulled out her phone.

Arizona watched helplessly as Callie lifted up Alex's t-shirt to examine the wound. "It's just a flesh wound," Callie told her.

"But there's so much blood!" She backed further away from Alex and hugged herself as she kept herself from hyperventilating.

"Granted, it's slightly deeper than usual. But it hit a fleshy area of his body so as long as we stop the bleeding, he'll be fine." Callie smiled reassuringly at her. She stood up and picked up a dishcloth that was hanging on a hook in the room's kitchenette. She kneeled back down to press it against Alex's wound. "Hey, I'm gonna need you to stay awake until the ambulance gets here. Can you do that?"

Alex laughed, then groaned in pain. "I need a caffeine injection. Or some Ritalin or something. Or some really strong ibuprofen."

"I'm sure they won't work as fast as you think you want them to work," Callie chuckled. "Just keep talking to me, okay?"

Alex turned his head to look at Arizona. "Robbins," he croaked. "Shit. I ruined your jacket."

With this, Arizona snapped out of it. "You better not die, Karev, because you owe me a new one."

* * *

**Next chapter: **Everyone makes their rounds visiting Alex in the hospital. Have the academics forged a bond with the FBI agents now?


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: **So, it's finally over... I'm taking a break from fanfiction for a while, so I just want to say thanks to everyone who followed, reviewed and favorited this story. I don't think my next story will be in the _Grey's Anatomy_ universe, but I may return one day. There are plenty of plot bunnies to be had!

* * *

"Where's Sofia?"

"I called the sitter to extend her shift. Paying her double."

The task force sat in a waiting room with crap hospital coffee and donuts. The waiting room was the only vacant private room at the hospital that time of night, and it was two floors up and on the other end of the building from the room that Alex will be recovering in. However, Arizona insisted that the debrief happen where they could see him as soon as the surgery was over - which would be any second soon, and they had only been here for forty-five minutes.

"The way Callie was acting was planned," Owen admitted. "She came to me with the idea last night after the briefing, and I heard her out and we fleshed it out together. The plan's downfall was that we didn't think to tell anyone, and that it came off as reckless, and now we're sitting in a hospital waiting room because one of us got shot."

"Why did no one tells us about this plan?" asked Mark. Arizona saw that he was looking at Callie disapprovingly.

Owen hesitated. "It's stupid, but we thought the element of surprise would work better."

"_No shit, Sherlock_." Cristina was particularly livid. "You encouraged Torres to potentially put our lives in danger!" she yelled at Owen.

"We didn't know that they had guns, we thought they wouldn't have guns because we didn't think they saw us coming. We didn't know that Gary Clark is a paranoid son of a bitch that kept a revolver in his pocket. So, tell me, Yang: how the _fuck_ do you arrest people you're playing video games with? That wasn't in the FBI handbook; it wasn't taught at the academy." Callie was not pleased that Cristina wasn't addressing her directly.

"Torres, hold up." Derek gestured for Callie to settle down. "I know that there was a bit of oversight on our part because we had you go in there without a set strategy of how to smoke them out, but I have to say that your actions were irresponsible." He looked at Owen. "And I'm annoyed that you and Hunt didn't bring the idea forward to the rest of the task force. You're a senior agent, you know that's not the way it works around here. We could have ironed it out if that was our only option."

"For the record, it still worked," said Callie.

"This is a silly argument." Bailey wasn't looking up from her iPad, and from the tone of her voice, Arizona knew that she found the whole issue to be a joke. "Torres, you sound ridiculous. We got the guys. Alex is going to be okay. We all did something stupid. End of story."

Cristina folded her arms. "I did not do anything stupid."

"We got the guys!" Callie exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Jesus Christ, Callie, a man got shot!" said Cristina. "And we have to fill out _paperwork_!" As if that was the gravest thing about it all.

Callie frowned. "But we didn't fire any shots."

"But a civilian got shot," Owen said resignedly. He looked at Mark and Derek. "I admit, guys, I fucked up. Not one of the best ideas that's ever come out of here. I think we should own up to internal affairs."

"You need to come up with a better explanation for them," said Mark.

Bailey looked up. "And just how are we going to deal with those guys, by the way? We all know that they will know. Everything was recorded in the can." She whirled around to glare at Mark, whose mouth was half-open. "And you can't make me tamper with it."

"Here are our choices, then." Mark leaned forward, his elbows resting on his thighs. "We stand by each other and tell them we all planned it and we didn't see it going wrong. Or we tell them the truth. What do you think, Derek? Owen?"

The two men sat in silence, contemplating.

The door opened. Teddy poked her head in. "Can you guys keep it down? This is a hospital, not a batting cage." Her mask still hung around her neck and she still had her scrub cap on. "The surgery went smoothly. Alex is in his room. The anesthetic will wear off in about seven to eight hours time," she told them. "He's going to be up and running in ten days, tops."

Arizona sighed in relief. "Can I see him?"

"He's just sleeping, Arizona," Teddy told her friend gently. "My shift is ending in twenty minutes so I'll drive you home." Her eyes ran over the faces of the FBI agents. "All of you need to go home, too."

"I know, but I want to see him." Arizona got on her feet.

Teddy's face softened. "All right," she said. "Come with me. The rest of you," she addressed the room, "go home. Go to bed. You can come visit him tomorrow."

* * *

Light streamed through the blinds of Alex's room, and Arizona roused herself. Her neck and back ached because of the position she slept in all night. Teddy offered her a ride last night after seeing Alex but she argued that she wanted to be there when he woke up. As she stretched, groaning softly in relief as blood rushed through her sore muscles, she noticed a pair of bleary eyes staring at her.

"You look like shit, Robbins," Alex croaked.

"You don't look so hot yourself, Karev."

"General anesthesia does that to you. You should know that. Before I went under, Teddy told me that you were out for around ten days after you got hurt in Afghanistan since they had to fly you to several different hospitals." Alex chuckled.

"Yeah, I was out for a while but I still ended up regaining my consciousness looking as radiant as I always do."

"Bullshit. I hope the breakfast cart comes soon. I'm really hungry," he said. "Wait. Teddy said I could eat, right?"

"She didn't say you couldn't, but I suppose someone would be coming in soon to deliver the verdict," said Arizona. "What the hell were you doing outside that room last night anyhow?"

"Mark was talking in my ear," Alex started. "He said something about Callie going rogue and to keep watch in case anything went down. Then he said that a gun had been drawn and I had to get in there, so I did."

"That was incredibly stupid of you. You're not a trained fighter, Alex. You could have been killed."

"I was trusted to hold the fort while backup was on its way." Alex inhaled. "Besides, you were in there. What if you're the one they pointed the gun at?"

"Callie went rogue on purpose," Arizona blurted out. When Alex looked at her confusedly, she explained it. "It was a poorly thought out plan and they're going to get in trouble for getting a civilian shot," she summarised.

Alex whistled. "No shit. Are you mad at her?"

"Kind of. You wouldn't have gotten shot if she hadn't gone rogue," Arizona admitted. "I think everyone is a little bit mad at her, though."

Alex appeared thoughtful when Teddy entered the room. "I know you're about to ask me when the food cart is coming," she began saying to Alex, "and I'm going to tell you that it's just down the hall and it'll be here soon. I don't even know why you're looking forward to eating, the food here is shit. In the meantime, I'm going to check your incision." She indicated for Arizona to scoot over so that she could lift Alex's hospital gown. "Hmm." She poked and prodded at it gently before readjusting the gown. "It's looking good. You'll be out of here in six days, provided that there's no infection or you don't strain yourself and burst the stitches - so_ don't_ do that."

"Thanks, doc." Alex smiled easily at her. "Can you tell Robbins to stop bugging me about replacing her jacket and to go home and sleep?"

"I was just about to get to that." Teddy turned to Arizona, hands on her hips. "I'm calling for a cab to take you home, and you are to take a hot shower and get to bed, okay? You've been wearing your prosthetic all night and that's not good for you." She lifted a finger when Arizona opened her mouth to speak. "No more arguments, the cab should be downstairs in twenty minutes."

"Come on, Arizona." Alex's voice was more tender than she was used to, but Arizona noticed that he was fighting a smirk. "I'm not dying or anything. You can go home, get some sleep, so you can come back to resume being my bossy thesis supervisor," he joked.

She sighed. "Fine."

"Cab will be downstairs in twenty," Teddy reminded her before leaving the room.

"Are you going to talk to Callie?" Alex asked Arizona as soon the door closed.

Arizona shrugged. "Maybe. I want to talk to her." She stood up, wincing as she placed her weight on her prosthetic._ Teddy's right. I need to take this off_. "I'll come visit you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure," said Alex. "And can you please bring me a burger?"

* * *

When Arizona limped out of the cab, she was surprised to see Callie sitting on her doorstep. _Fate is agreeing with me, perhaps_. Callie seemed to have noticed her limp and went over to help her. "What are you doing here?" Arizona asked the taller woman, while gratefully clinging onto her arm for support. "Aren't you supposed to be at the office?"

"I got the message this morning. One week unpaid leave - euphemism for suspension - and the three months on probation," Callie told her. "Mostly office and lab work. I'll be sticking my hands in dead bodies for most of that time. It'll be like being in Miami again." She shuddered. "I do enjoy profiling."

"That sucks. I'm sorry."

Callie waved it off. "I deserve it. I wasn't thinking. I was doing what I would have done in an individual situation, and I completely forgot that I have to be acting for the good of the group," she said.

Arizona was opening the front door when she regarded Callie with curiosity. "They teach that at the academy?" she asked.

"In the force, yes. I never went to the academy." Callie's face took on a half-grimace. "I bet they teach that in the Marines, too."

"It's the first thing you learn." Arizona opened the door. "You want to come in?"

* * *

After giving Arizona's residual limb a wonderful leg massage - she always had the most amazing hands - Callie sidled into bed next to her. They lay there for a while, on their backs, side by side, not touching. Just breathing.

Callie broke the silence. "How is Alex?"

"He's fine. He asked me to buy him a burger tomorrow," said Arizona. "That boy is like a weed."

"But you love him." Callie turned on her side.

Arizona nodded. "I'd never tell him that, but I do."

"You were so worried about him." Callie lifted a hand, hesitated for a second, before running a finger down Arizona's jawbone. "I hated seeing you like that, and I even hated that it was my fault. I'm sorry, Arizona."

"I'm sorry, too." Arizona turned on her side too, so that they were face to face. She drew closer to Callie; she couldn't help herself. Their lips met - no, they crashed, into each other, and Arizona's front was pressing against Callie's. Her hands roamed, her fingers dipping into Callie's familiar curves, tangling in her thick hair.

When she climbed on top of Callie, she felt the dark-haired woman's hand on her shoulder, pushing her away firmly, but not forcefully. "_Calliope_," Arizona gasped, trying to read the questions in Callie's eyes.

Callie gazed longingly at her, pushing her hair back where it fell on her face. She remained silent.

"I love you," said Arizona. "Is it okay to say that?"

Callie answered her with a kiss.

* * *

They woke up hours later, Callie pressed up against Arizona's side. They were naked and they smelt of each other's sweat. Callie mumbled something against the tender skin on the side of Arizona's breast.

Arizona smiled at the sensation. She didn't open her eyes. "What was that?"

She felt Callie raise her head. "I love you too."

_What did she just say?_ Arizona's eyes fluttered open. "Really?"

Callie was grinning. "Yeah," she said. "I really do."

"I'm glad." Arizona tenderly kissed her on the forehead. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

Callie's eyebrows knotted. "Okay with what?"

"Getting back together."

"Arizona," Callie laughed, "I don't think we _ever_ wanted to be apart."

* * *

**One year later**

Arizona and Teddy's house was milling with people chatting and eating, wine glasses in hand. Sofia and Zola, Derek's daughter, were playing in the corner of the den by themselves, while Arizona and Callie were busying themselves pouring everyone wine.

When everyone's glasses were filled, Arizona stood by the mantle. "Can I get everyone's attention, please?" she called out. Everyone's eyes turned on her. "I want to propose a toast to the newest addition to the University of Washington's computer science department - Doctor Alex Karev!"

Since the case was over, Alex finished his thesis on time and received his doctorate, then worked as a research assistant at UDub before accepting an assistant professorship to fill the spot vacated by Arizona - the department's newest associate professor.

"To Alex!" everyone chorused, then drank from their glasses.

"But hey," Alex's voice rang out, "can we also have a toast for my mentor, the newly engaged, newly promoted Doctor Arizona Robbins?"

Arizona instinctively scooted closer to Callie as Teddy, Meredith and the rest of the task force toasted them. Callie's arm went around her waist in support. "Oh, come on, Alex, this party was for you!" Arizona said.

"Hey, it's for both of us." Alex walked towards them. "It's going to be weird sleeping in your old bedroom." Arizona and Callie had bought a house in Derek's neighbourhood and were planning to move there before the holidays. Arizona and Teddy decided to offer Alex the vacated room, since living in a smelly apartment wasn't something college professors do. "I mean, you two probably did it in there."

"Karev!" Arizona hit him on the arm. "Get that image out of your head now." He's a college professor now but he still behaves like a frat boy.

Alex scuttled away from them to avoid more slaps. "Yes, I'm getting it out!" he exclaimed. "I don't want to be mentally scarred anyway!"

"Mami!" Sofia squealed from the den. "Mami, come here!"

Callie nodded at her. "I'm going to see what's going on over there," she told Arizona. She walked to where her daughter was.

Bailey appeared next to Arizona. "Congratulations, Alex." She smiled at him, before turning to the blonde - effectively dismissing the younger man. Alex read the cues and went on to chat with Mark and Owen. "And you! You're going to get married! To that beautiful woman over there."

They watched Callie shower Sofia and Zola with kisses. _I hope I'd be that good as a mother_. "Is marriage any fun, Bailey?" Arizona asked.

"Oh, it's no fun most of the time, but it's rewarding, it's passionate, and with the right person, it's one of the promises you'd want to keep until your death," Bailey replied sagely. "Are you ready for that?"

Arizona nodded. "I think I am."

Cristina approached them. "Hey,we've got an idea," she said brightly. Lexie was standing behind her, her face expectant.

Arizona and Bailey looked at each other. "What is it, Yang?" they asked in unison.

"Let's have a LAN party. Right now. We haven't had one in a year."

_Yeah, that's because someone got shot last time._ "Are you serious?" asked Arizona.

"Completely," said Lexie. "Come on, we still keep our gaming laptops. Mine's in the car, so is Cristina's. Meredith is going to join us, too."

Bailey bit her lip. "So's mine," she admitted. "Torres!" she called out. "You want to LAN?"

Callie looked up from her conversation with Sofia. "Heck yes! Let me grab my laptop. It's in my car."

Mark, Owen, Derek and Teddy watched confusedly as the women went outside, then returned with their laptop cases. "What the hell is going on?" Mark asked, his eyes following Lexie, who was wrangling cables left and right.

"Geeks," muttered Teddy.

"Alex, you want to interpret what's going on?"

"Shit is going down and I want to be part of it," was all he said, before disappearing outside to his car. He returned with his laptop under his arm. "Count me in, guys!"

"I have a spare computer," said Arizona. "Anyone want to join?" She posed the question to them.

"No!" the four of them chorused.

"Fine then," said Arizona. "Okay, I call dibs on being captain of one team," she told the others. They were once federal agents that she was wary of, and now they've become her good friends. She made eye contact with Calliope Torres - once a stranger, now her fiancée. They gave each other knowing looks. "And Callie is my first pick."

Callie skipped over to her, her hands encircling her waist and pulling her close. They kissed deeply for what seemed like forever to the music of everyone's cheers.


End file.
